It was the competition dreamed up during the first Covid-19 lockdown, when Oscar-nominated cinematographer Lawrence Sher ASC and his wife, Hema, recreated film stills using household items as props, family members as actors, and their cell phones for cameras. Now, the winners of the 2022 ShotDeck Recreations contest have been rewarded with over $30,000 worth of prizes including cameras, lenses, lights and support from Sony, Zeiss, Blackmagic, Aputure, Rosco, SmallHD, Tiffen, and British Cinematographer.
The free competition saw entrants select a frame from the 300,000-plus stills in ShotDeck’s high-definition movie images library and recreate it, DIY-style. This year over 800 entries were received from around the world.
The winners are:
Best Miniature Recreation: Simon Meyer (E.T.); Best Black & White Recreation: Manu León (Ida); Best Production Design: Karla Torres (Moonrise Kingdom); Best Costume Design: Guilherme Isidoro (Midsommar); Best Acting: Kody Felix (Raging Bull); Best Macro or Insert Shot: Jona Jelinek (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford); Highest Degree of Difficulty: Yaroslav Naumenko (The Hudsucker Proxy); Best Psycho Recreation: Andrew Barker; Best Hair and Make-up: Ivonne Celis (Daisies); Most Difficult Lighting: Nikita Vvedenskiy (The Neon Demon); Most Ingenious Setup: Tom Gregg (Skyfall); Most Difficult Lighting CU/ECU: Carly Chan (Euphoria); Best Use of Animal or Kid: Audra Todd (The Crow); Best Behind-the-Scenes: Romeo Ortiz (Big Eyes); Best Team Effort: Ishan Shah (Inglorious Basterds); Best Colour: Peter Chun (Better Days); Best Colour Matching: Esteban Caicedo (Blade Runner 2049); Best Colour Matching CU/ECU: Aiden Nicell (Blade Runner 2049); Most Accurate Lighting: Vinod Vijayasankaran (Nocturnal Animals); Most Accurate Lighting CU/ECU: Joseph Baca (Prisoners); MVP Award: Nathaniel Elbert.
The competition’s judges included Todd Phillips, Erik Messerschmidt ASC, Jade Healy, Tommy Maddox-Upshaw ASC, Natasha Braier ASC ADF, Alice Brooks ASC, the Kinnane Brothers, Jill Bogdanowicz, Greig Fraser ACS ASC, and, of course, ShotDeck’s founder Sher. A selection of the best recreations will be featured in more detail our November issue. Well done to everyone who entered!
Here are the seven Best in Show winners in more detail:
