|
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ACS Short Ends E-News - November 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | National SponsorsMajor National Sponsor
Platinum Sponsors
Gold Sponsors
Bronze Sponsors
National Awards Partners
National Supporters
| In This Issue
From the President
Greetings ACS friends and colleagues, Over 200 people attended this informative and incredibly entertaining evening, which was followed by a book signing session for all those who either purchased a copy of the book that evening or one they brought with them. It was great that people such as Jim Frazier ACS, Tom Cowan, Brad Shield ACS, Martin Cayzer, Anne Bruning, Valerie Taylor AM attended this event to support the book. The evening itself was covered by a number of cameras under the guidance of David Wakeley ACS. The program will be available soon, and in a first for the ACS it was shot and edited live. There are many to thank for this, Aleksei Vanamois did a great job, as did Glenn Beaumont from Videocraft (with bump in help from Nick Gleeson), Steve Munro, Anna Howard ACS, Geri Gardiner who coordinated the evening with the Orpheum team, Paul Hambides & James Puli. Not forgetting Daniel Christie for supporting us with his fantastic photography. Thanks to everyone from the NSW Branch for a brilliant effort.
SHADOWCATCHERS CHRISTMAS YO HO HO!!As a special Christmas treat for ACS members, we are offering a Standard Edition copy along with an ACS Beanie in an ACS gift bag for $66.00. This is an ideal gift for any member, sponsor or supporter. Simply go to www.shadowcatchers.com.au to purchase your Christmas copy. This offer finishes on December 15.
SHADOWCATCHERS LIMITED EDITION COPIES AVAILABLEAs mentioned in last months E News we do have some Limited Edition copies of the book that have become available for sale. 1 x Limited Edition with signature page unsigned. 1 x Limited Edition signed, numbered 74#. Very Damaged $120.00 1x Limited Edition unsigned, unnumbered with repaired front page. 1x Limited Edition unsigned, unnumbered. Obvious damage to repaired page. Also damage to top & bottom RHS front cover. REF2# 1 x Limited Edition signed, number obscured (21#) Inside front page repaired. $200.00 REF4# Contact Ron Johanson ACS or David Lewis ACS to secure one of these copies. Prices include GST. Postage is additional.
Lemac Awarded Film Victoria HonourThis is a great news story. During October, Film Victoria announced Lemac Film and Digital as the first recipient of the John Howie Award for Outstanding Leadership, Achievement and Service to the Victorian Screen Industry, one of two new Screen Leaders Awards that were established by Film Victoria this year. Lemac has grown from humble beginnings in 1975 to become a leading provider of services for digital, cinema, broadcast, television and film projects and an invaluable resource in the industry. The ACS congratulate all at Lemac, but a very special congratulations to Sue Greenshields, for her leadership, work ethic and support of our Industry. We at the ACS are very fortunate to have Lemac as one of our National Sponsors.
2012 State and Territory Awards
ACS State and Territory Awards presentations are under way. Starting last week with the SA & WA Awards for Cinematography in Adelaide where our Prime Minister, well I thought it was, it certainly looked and sounded like her, made a guest appearance, to the delight of those attending. Who knows who may appear at the following Awards in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Our Awards are a very special time for all members who have entered their work for judging by their peers. I wish each and every one of you success and look forward to seeing you at the various Awards. Although sadly, I wont be able to attend the Victorian/Tasmanian Awards as Ill be in Poland attending IMAGO and Camerimage on behalf of the Society. But all is not lost, as Ernie Clark ACS will be in Melbourne to present the Accreditation pins and certificates. I look forward to reporting back to you all on the issues discussed and the outcomes in Poland that could have a bearing on our craft here. Awards time is also a time when we can thank all our ACS sponsors, who support the Society both Nationally and at a State and Territory level. Take a minute to review the roster of sponsors every time you receive an ACS E News, or read AC Magazine. Without the support, dedication and encouragement from our ACS sponsors, our Society would not necessarily be able to bring you, the members those things we all take for granted. I ask you to resist the temptation to purchase elsewhere, when we should make our loyal Sponsors the first stop for any purchase. Until next time
SA/WA 32nd Awards for CinematographyIn keeping with the launch of the popular Shadowcatchers book, this year the theme for the night was Black and White with a splash of colour. The room was filled with silhouettes; once we were all seated the night was opened by a wonderful screening of Raymond Crowes hand shadow performance, What a Wonderful World, with an addition to the original opening produced just for the ACS and was shot by Adelaides very own Rodney Bolton. Here is a link to the Royal Variety Show performance version, well worth a look. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAQxNVQF_I0
The night set off at cracking speed and then, as with all Awards nights, the hand brake was slowly applied till we were at that familiar speed of what feels like backwards, joking aside, the night was filled with countless awards for a year full of, what the judges called, outstanding work. We were also very fortunate to have the lovely Prime Minister, Gill Lard who generously graced us with her presence, to present Awards along with our very popular MC, Mark Evans where we saw no less than 71 awards being handed out. The Cliff Ellis Award went to the up and coming star Ben Dowie who started out as a runner for production company Kojo. The very talented Brant Cummings took out countless awards throughout the night and was also presented with The News Directors Award for the Best News Story. Richard Malins ACS, the only representative from WA was in and out of his seat all night collecting on behalf of his fellow WA members and not only did Richard take home an Award for himself but he was also presented with Life Membership for his contribution to the ACS and for his many, many years service as the WA treasurer. But the big gong for the night, The Milton Ingerson Award for the Best Entry went to a very surprised Jonathan Rossiter ACS for his brilliant work on the animated short Sleight of Hand.
With the Awards over we were ushered into the next room where we were surrounded by more silhouettes, fine music and served lovely food. Major National Sponsor, Fujinon supplied wonderful table gifts, a lovely cardboard cylinder appearing to be a lens but once opened revealed a rather lovely bottle of fine Sake and a little cup. Thumbs up all round for those. Door prizes a plenty were to be had, number after number called and a very interesting turn of events, even though the staff of Picture Hire where seated all round the room they all managed to score themselves a door prize, David Gregan not only took home Awards but also got the National door prize of a copy of Shadowcatchers, a beanie and a bag. Dai Cook and David Tang also managed to collect a copy of the much sort after Shadowcatchers. With the meals over and the door prizes depleted, the large bi-fold doors were rolled back to reveal silhouetted go go dancers performing behind white screens and the biggest table of help your self desserts that you have ever seen. Like ants on a mission of search and devour the crowd surged to the table of delights and the relaxed part of the evening began. Through the night one of the go go dancers took on a new shape, one that is familiar to us all, entertaining the crowd with his antics the National President turned on the charm and the moves for an albeit short performance, but a memorable one. The SA and WA branches would like to thank all our local and National sponsors and our members for assisting and attending the night.
Sponsor Spotlight: Videocraft
New PMW-F55 and PMW-F5 camera models, plus new RAW recorder, PL lenses, viewfinders, battery and recording media expand Sonys line of end-to-end 4K acquisition solutions The new CineAlta 4K cameras deliver unprecedented creative options for HD/2K*/QFHD*/4K (F55) and 2K*/HD (F5) production. Both offer multi-codec support: the new XAVC MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format, the SR codec (MPEG4 SStP), and the well-established XDCAM 50Mbps 4:2:2 codec. In-camera recording uses Sonys latest SxS media, SxS PRO+ (Plus) - on the F55 for 4K:60p:422 10-bit XAVC and HD:422 10-bit XAVC high frame rate shooting, and on the F5 for HD XAVC and HD high frame rate. Both cameras are further distinguished by wide (14 stops) exposure latitude, high sensitivity and low noise. The F55 adds a global shutter to eliminate rolling shutter skew and flash banding, and uses the same colour filter with ultra-wide colour gamut as the F65, for highly accurate colour reproduction. In conjunction with the new RAW recorder AXS-R5, high frame rate capability allows cinematographers to capture super slow-motion imagery in up to 4K RAW file on newly developed AXS memory -- up to 240fps** with the F55 and up to 120 fps** with the F5. The F55 can further be connected to the new 4K 30-inch LCD monitor, PVM-X300 using four 3G-SDI interfaces for 4096 x 2160 up to 60p live monitoring while recording XAVC 4K and for playback of XAVC 4K images. Similarly, it is also possible to connect directly to Sonys new 84 BRAVIA 4K LED TV for large-screen monitoring of the cameras 4K 60P images (at resized horizontal resolution of 3860 pixels).
A Postcard from Tony Politis in NashvilleHi guys, Just another day at the office on US seriesNashville. This is the camera crew for today's shoot at the Ryman Auditorium in good ol Nashville, Tennessee. On this day we had a camera crew of 18, normally we have 9. Thats me in the striped shirt on the LHS, standing next to Ross Berryman ACS. Two good ol boys!
Congratulations to Meredith Calthorpe and THE ASTRONAUTA big round of applause for NSW Member, Meredith Calthorpe as her independently produced feature film THE ASTRONAUT has been selected as a digiSPAA finalist! Meredith was .wait for it the Cinematographer, Writer and Producer. Good job Meredith, we look forward to screening the film at the ACS HQ in the near future.
ACS HQ Report
Piet De Vries ACS continued to hold his very successful workshops throughout the month, and promises there are more to come next month. Independent documentary maker Jason Kent utilised the facilities of the HQ and shot a lot of his new project over three days. Barbizon Lighting a new ACS NSW sponsor held a very successful industry night for members and other guests. The successful ACS Book Committee met once again in the boardroom to plan their next initiative, which included discussion about Christmas promo for The Shadowcatchers. Judging of the ACS NSW/ACT award entries was conducted over the weekend 13th and 14th of October, which proved once again the HQ is a perfect facility for this endeavour. Page 2 Communications has also used the HQ for some of its corporate projects. The quiet and different areas within the HQ space, allow for a contrast of areas to shoot documentaries, corporate videos or just as a location for interviews etc. Sidat de Silva honed his editing and grading skills working on a fund raising video for The Cerebral Palsy Alliance on the Mac computer in the ACS Archives. The NSW Branch Thursday Drop In was a little different this month. Coptercam, another new NSW sponsor showed off their aerial photography skills at nearby North Sydney Park, then returning to the HQ to screen the very impressive pictures that they recorded for the members to view. All in all a very busy time at the ACS HQ, with much more to come. Remember the HQ is there for all members to use. WHAT THE!Welcome home Peter James ACS ASC from a well deserved break in France. Well done Tony Gardiner who has signed on for a further 12 months on Home and Away. Malcolm Ludgate ACS shooting 3D IMAX film in Canada. Mylene and Bronte wait patiently at home for his return. John Seale ACS ASC and David Burr ACS still hard at work on Mad Max: Fury Road in Namibia. Maybe home for Christmas, Louise and Therese will be pleased Where is Jaems Grant ACS??? Stephen Windon ACS, Dean Semler ACS ASC and Dion Beebe ACS ASC all busy shooting in London. Good job Martin McGrath ACS, great work on Rake. How good is Richard Roxborough!! Go see Sessions shot by Geoffrey Simpson ACS, when it comes to your local theatre. Jules OLoughlin ACS to start shooting Wolf Creek 2 in early January in South Australia. Watch Redfern Now shot by Mark Wareham ACS. SA President, Ernie Clark ACS has signed on to shoot second unit on Wolf Creek 2 with Jules O'Loughlin ACS shooting main unit. Quite a team! Welcome home Brad Shield ACS shooting second unit on Wolverine at Fox Studios. Ross Emery ACS steering the ship as DOP on main unit. Nice looking quinella!! Aaron Gulley slated to shoot his first drama series, Sam Fox: Extreme Adventures at the SAFC Adelaide studios. Good onya Aron!! Here are some of the innovative ways USB entries were submitted for Awards judging. Note the lack of any identification on some entries!
ACS MENTOR-ATTACHMENT SCHEMEThe ACS Mentor Scheme has closed for this year with much success. Weve had 14 enquiries with 9 placements: Many thanks for all your support and your commitment to this ACS initiative. We will re commence the Mentor program officially next year, but Im more than happy to still receive requests to take part in the Scheme. president@austcine.org.au We received the following email from Sarah MacDonald in London, where she is being mentored by Dion Beebe ACS ASC: Hi Ron and Mylene, A Message from the Editor of AC MagazineThere's a lot happening in our industry that I don't know about. And if I don't know about it, I can't run a story on it, and please don't think that I'm only interested in big movies
on the contrary
if you shoot Docos, current affairs, magazine, news (dramatic or interesting), music videos, science, experimental, short films, big budget movies, low budget movies, no budget movies, TV commercials, TV drama, TV soaps, sport, art installations, industrial, health etc., I WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP TO. So send me something! rmarks@cinematographer.net.au Postcard from Queensland Member Ben Jaensch
Gday from the Grand Canyon! Film Review: SIDE BY SIDE by Dick Marks; Editor AC Magazine.Side by Side is certainly a fascinating, must see movie, of that there is no doubt. But how could it not be when Keanu Reeves moderates conversations about film and digital capture with James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Christopher Nolan, Steven Soderbergh, Danny Boyle, George Lucas, Lars von Trier, Andy and Lana Wachowski, Robert Rodriguez, Michael Ballhaus, Don McAlpine, Dion Beebe, Wally Pfister, Dick Pope, Vittorio Storaro, and Vilmos Zigmond, to name but a few. The movie provides lots of opinions but no answers. No one won or lost their argument. Dedicated film people will leave the theatre still believing in film, whereas the digital believers film is dead to them, will leave the cinema feeling vindicated and just a wee bit smug. I believe that film will linger on, as a large number of its defenders were young film makers seeking the whole film experience. Its already deemed to be retro, and we all know how appealing that makes things. Although all the arguments, on both sides, are raised by movie making royalty, my conclusion is that only history will tell. All arguments are intelligent and rational, but the most powerful argument for film still appears to be aesthetics, protocol and discipline, whilst the digital arguments focussed heavily on cost, speed, convenience, ergonomics and the big one, security of knowing at the end of the day what is in the can, to borrow an old film phrase.The only absolute truth to emerge from Side by Side is that no one knows how to archive digital information to keep it safe for the next 100years. And the total irony is that the only safe medium is, wait for it . film. Now I understand the real meaning of the films title. ACS TECH COMMITTEE TESTS TRUCOLOR HS by Tom Gleeson.
A new light source has arrived with Phosphor lighting from TruColor. It uses a phosphor panel that emits light when excited by a LED light source. While the LED source is frequency limited the phosphor panels emit a much wider range of visible light. The advantages are a more stable, no flicker output with good colorimetric findings. FUNNEL WEB SPIDER DOLLY Rory McDonald
Thanks to the ACS Technical Committee's feed back on the development of the 'Funnel Web Spider Dolly'. Here is a new video showcasing the FWSD Time lapse improvements, hope you can share this with the ACS members. https://vimeo.com/51854000The above video shows the current improvements, now with the ability to 'Shoot Move Shoot' which means HDR and long exposure motion controlled photography are now possible. Each frame was shot in the Illawarra area of N.S.W. on the Canon large RAW format. The day scenes were shot in HDR mode with 3 separate exposures taken, then conformed in post to 16bit TIFFs (120mb) using SNS-HDR software, to find out more check out the great tutorial done by Dustin Farrell here: vimeo.com/38838557 The night scenes were shot at long exposures up to 30 seconds per frame in Canon large RAW format (30mb). From there the frames were brought into Adobe After Effects and conformed into a 25fps video. To see the Behind the Scenes photos check out: facebook.com/Funnelwebspiderdolly Future improvements will be the addition of multi axis motion control, the FWSD is not hindered by weight restrictions so loading multiple cameras, jibs, sliders, extension arms on top of the FWSD is now possible. To keep up to date and get involved with the development of the FWSD like us on Facebook facebook.com/Funnelwebspiderdolly To get on the pre sale list for the FWSD email: Rory@lawwmedia.com UPCOMING SHORT COURSES AT AFTRS OPENAFTRS Open has a wide range of short courses in the coming months. Discounts of 10% apply to all ACS members. For full course details visit http://www.open.aftrs.edu.au . Australian Production Designers Guild AwardsThe ACS is a proud supporter of the Australian Production Designers Guild Awards. The 2012 Award ceremony was held in Mid November and was a great success. Please find a full list of winners below, by clicking on the link. Thank you APDG for allowing the ACS to play a part in the success of your Awards.
ACS MERCHANDISE: NEW STOCK HAS ARRIVED!Available from David Lewis ACS dlewis@cinematographer.net.au ACS HOODIE $35.00 . THE ACS PROUDLY SUPPORTS THE KIDZFLICKS COLLECTION
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
© 2019 Australian Cinematographers Society | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
