Dear members and friends, New Year greetings to you all.
Without wishing to state the obvious 2022 is well and truly with us and along with it, our not so friendly passenger, Covid 19 and its variants still managing to remain front page news, with not even Australia retaining the Ashes gaining any prominence.
I have for such a long time urged us all to be kinder, and I do so again by asking if you hear from an ACS member or colleague you take the time to respond. Perhaps they are looking for work, or perhaps they are just staying in touch, it doesn’t really matter but just out of common courtesy please respond as it could lift someone’s spirits when they need it most.
I thank you all once again for the honour you have afforded me, by allowing me to be your National President over the past 14 years. I am very proud to be part of such an important Society and its role within our industry and the optimism we all share for the future. A gentle reminder that we must remain balanced in our decision making after listening to all opinions.
My greatest wish is for a Happy, Healthy and Successful 2022 to each and every one of you.
As seen below, we plan this year to resume three very important initiatives which are all extremely popular with you, the members.
Ron Johanson OAM ACS
BOB MILLER – ACS TECHNICAL & INNOVATION ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2022
Nominations are now open for The Bob Miller Award, named after the inventor of the world’s first fluid action tripod head, Bob Miller.
The award is presented at the ACS Annual National Awards for Cinematography and comprises $1,000 in cash and a $2000 Miller voucher enabling the recipient to purchase any Miller Camera Support product at 40% discount off list price directly from Miller, with a valued list price of $3,333.
In addition, Miller has donated an LP54 in a wooden case and a special Bob Miller Award plaque, which will reside at the ACS headquarters in North Sydney. The name of the award recipient will be engraved on the LP 54 Classic plaque, every year, in perpetuity. The recipient will also receive a framed, signed plaque to commemorate their win.
Nominations are now open and will close at the end of March 2022.
All those nominated must be financial ACS members who have potentially contributed in the 24 months prior to the 2022 Awards by way of technical and/or innovative practical ideas that have helped the industry to advance. You can nominate yourself or a member who you believe is worthy of recognition.
For consideration send, by March 30th, 2022, your nomination with a detailed description of the particular technical or innovative achievement, to ACS National President; Ron Johanson ACS; rjohanson@cinematographer.net.au
THE DREW LLEWELYN ACS CAMERIMAGE SCHOLARSHIP
OPEN FOR NOMINATIONS IN THE NEAR FUTURE
Established with the generous support of the Llewelyn family in recognition of the legacy left by Drew Llewelyn ACS, TheDrew Llewelyn ACS Camerimage Scholarship, enables one lucky ACS member to attend Camerimage in Torun, Poland with $4,000 towards flights and accommodation, along with introductions at the Camerimage festival.
The Scholarship, which commenced in 2015, will be open to financial Full and Active (Cinematographer & Camera Crew) members of the Society. It will be administered by the ACS and decided on by a subcommittee of peers after submitting a simple application explaining “Why you want to travel to Camerimage and how you see it having long-term benefits for you”.
Previous recipients of The Drew Llewelyn ACS Camerimage Scholarship are:
2015 Lizz Vernon NSW
2016 Drew English NSW
2017 Meg White NSW
2018 Sissy Reyes NSW
2019 Simon Woods QLD
2020 - 2021 No Scholarships Awarded
THE ACS AND PANAVISION CONTINUE TO REWARD EMERGING TALENT
THE ACS AND PANAVISION CONTINUE TO REWARD EMERGING TALENT
The Australian Cinematographers Society invite emerging cinematographers to apply for the 2022 Panavision - John Leake OAM ACS Emerging Cinematographer Award.
The Award provides a prize of $2,400 cash to an emerging cinematographer who is either currently studying cinematography at a tertiary institution, or has begun working in the film industry, and is a current member of the ACS. The prize can be used for any educational, training, or professional work that will further their skills and career in cinematography. They will also receive from our generous sponsor PANAVISION a camera rental package to the value of $15,000 (Insurance not included but can be arranged).
This incentive has been a total success, fostering young cinematographers in the pursuit of their career goals and the ACS is very proud to be part of this valuable programme.
SA Branch member Claire Bishop, recipient of the NFSA-ACS John Leake OAM ACS Award in 2019, said: “I was completely astonished. This award is so beneficial for aspiring cinematographers. It’s the push of encouragement, sense of belonging and connection with the industry I needed. I encourage anyone who thinks they aren’t ready to apply, to go for it!”
The 2022 recipient will be announced on Saturday 30th April at the prestigious ACS National Awards for Cinematography in Adelaide.
About the ACS John Leake OAM ACS Award
The Award is named in honour of the Australian Cinematographers Society co-founder, John Leake OAM ACS (1927-2009). John began his cinematographic career as a 15-year-old with Movietone News before moving on to Supreme Sound Studios. He served as both NSW President and Federal President of the ACS and was the Society’s Official Historian until his passing. Applications are now open and will close on April 1st 2022.
For 2022 application forms please contact: rjohanson@cinematographer.net.au
Previous recipients of the John Leake OAM ACS Award are;
2010 Kirsty Stark SA
2011 Edward Goldner Vic
2012 Jimmy Ennett ACT
2013 Dale Bremner ACS NSW
2014 Thom Neal NT
2015 Josh Farmelo VIC
2016 Simon J Walsh VIC
2017 Mark Kenfield VIC
2018 Ben Cotgrave QLD
2019 Claire Bishop SA
2020-2021 No Award due to Covid
National Annual General Meeting
Sunday 23rd January 2022
Dear Members and Sponsors,
The Australian Cinematographers Society will be holding its National Annual General Meeting via zoom at 10.30am AEDT on Sunday 23rd January 2022. All positions of your National Executive will be vacated and your branch delegates will vote your new membership team.
Please contact National Secretary, Kevin Hudson ACSif you require the zoom link on secretary@cinematographer.net.au by 10:30AM AEDT, Friday 21st January 2022.
Kind regards, Kevin Hudson ACS
National Secretary
Australian Cinematographers Society
Hands On with Roger Lanser ACS & Friends
Camera department stalwart and friend of the ACS, Michelle Pizanis arranged with Justin Hechinger of Camzilla in Sydney to have a hands on with an amazing new piece of equipment. A small group of cinematographers came along to have a ‘hands on’ demonstration of the new DJI Ronin 4D - a combined camera and gimbal. We all found it ergonomic and well weighted. Packed with function and form the camera sits easily in the hand and the duel hand grips are adjustable and removable.
There are lens options, an excellent intuitive menu and a seperate screen is available from which the camera can be operated remotely with a rated signal range of a whopping 6 kilometres! It can come with a 6 or 8K sensor and the auto focus function was smooth and responded well. It has massive on board filtering features and setup time was minimal. On board data storage is available at 1TB. Certainly a new camera/gimbal set up with high specs, great potential and functionality worth having a look at. A possible game changer in image gathering.
We all had a go at doing hand held shots of each other up and down the street and back into the store. Everyone thought it easy to use and the gimbal and stabilisation first class.
Those attending were: David Burr ACS, Ricky Schamburg, Hillary Crombie, Michelle Pizanis and Roger Lanser ACS.
Hillary Crombie and Michelle Pizanis check out the new Ronin 4D
Rob Draper ACS Creepshow
Los Angeles based NSW member Rob Draper ACS has shot all three seasons of the extremely popular anthology series Creepshow.
Based on the 1982 horror comedy classic of the same name, a comic book comes to life in a series of vignettes, exploring terrors from murder to the supernatural and unexplainable.
In the video linked here Rob discusses his initial approach to keeping true to the original Creepshow lighting style while giving the show a more contemporary look.
From SA Member Miles Rowland
Midnight Asia: Eat - Dance - Dream
Launching January 20th on Netflix is 'Midnight Asia', a docu-series that offers a glimpse into the hidden and nocturnal worlds of Asia Megacities.
According to Netflix: "For those of us who live in Asia, we know that the cities never sleep. Our new documentary, Midnight Asia: Eat - Dance - Dream, shows this side of the megacities, telling stories of their people after the sun goes down.”
Adelaide based member Miles Rowland was contacted by the production company IFA Media in 2019 to shoot the series originally planning to film in Manila, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Mumbai and Bangkok.
"I wanted the series to have a consistent feeling yet also channel the energy that each city brought. It needed to capture all the intangible stuff so you could really live and feel it. Each city had its unique energy and that really needed to come through. For instance in the Phillipines the average age of someone from Manila is less than 25 years old which gives an awesome youthful feeling to the city. Yet Tokyo’s nightlife was the alter ego of its daytime character where the darker, sillier or fun side is allowed to be exposed. The colour palette of each city was so unique too and I wanted that to play an important part in separating one show from another."
“It was an incredible show to work on. There were lots of very unique challenges to creating a naturalistic yet stylised documentary set only at night. Naturally, it’s very dark but that creates lots of opportunities. We battled exhaustion, monsoons, mosquito’s.. By the end of each 12 days shoot we were total night crawlers - almost fearful of daylight.”
“The stories we shot were all amazing. From Sumiko Iwamuro, the world oldest DJ in Tokyo to the insane Battle Rap scene in Manila. Originally, the IFA team intended to travel to each city to research and shoot each episode firsthand but the onset of the pandemic in early 2020 forced abrupt changes for a production".
There'll be more on this in the March edition of AC Magazine.
Who Shot With What
IndieWire Surveys
The Cameras and Lenses Used to Shoot 29 Awards Contenders
IndieWire talks to the directors of photography whose films are in awards contention and are among the most critically acclaimed films of the year to find out which cameras and lenses they used and, and more importantly, why these were the right tools to create the visual language of their respective films.
Included are Aussie cinematographers Ari Wegner ACS and Greig Fraser ACS ASC.
