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ACS NSW
12th March 2021
A message from the President
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
 
I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to complete the Camera Workforce Census 2021. We had a great response with 1190 of you participating which was received with great enthusiasm from our collaborators at Deakin University who declared that the ACS should win an award for “Best Industry Research Partner”.
 
In a week that celebrated International Women’s Day, I was delighted to see all the photos on our social media platforms of our amazing camera crews. Power on everyone, it’s great to see a greater diversity in our teams.
For our March ACS NSW Drop In, which will be held face to face next Thursday March 18th 6pm at ACS HQ, we are delighted to welcome award winning cinematographer, Susan Stitt ACS. Susi works across both drama and commercials and she will be sharing some approaches she uses to create some of her signature textural and painterly imagery. She will discuss some of her techniques shooting cars and how she is adapting these for an upcoming feature as well as her insights into highspeed food photography using both the Phantom and RED cameras.  
Angelo from Dragon Image will also join us with a presentation of some of the less familiar features and modes of the RED camera. Numbers will be limited due to Covid Restrictions so please book in advance  via our Eventbrite link.
March NSW ACS Drop In Registration LINK
I would like to send my condolences to friends and family of Stan Moore who recently passed. Stan was a pioneer of our Australian film Industry and those of us who studied Film Production at North Sydney Technical College during the 80s an 90s will remember the generous sharing of his experience as a camera person and editor.
 
Don’t forget our National ACS Awards will be held in Canberra this year on Saturday May 1st 2021. The event will be face to face at the National Gallery if all things Covid continue in a positive direction so please consider joining us in the nation’s capital for a weekend of cinematography.
 
Stay safe and vigilant as our industry ramps up.
 
All the best,
Carolyn


Carolyn Constantine ACS
NSW ACS Branch President 
ACS NSW March Drop In

6pm, Thursday,18th March, 2021 
ACS National HQ
L2, 26 Ridge Street,
North Sydney NSW 2060
 
Join us in person for this months Drop In with our very special guest, award winning cinematographer Susan Stitt ACS. Susi will be presenting some of her latest projects including discussing working with cars, LED screens and high speed food photography using both Phantom and RED.
Guest Speaker Susan Stitt ACS

But wait, there's more...
Guest Sponsor Angelo Boutsalis 
Angelo from Dragon Image will also be discussing some of the little understood features of the RED camera and how they work.
You'll learn how RED camera is capable of: HDRX (22 stop dynamic range) Stills mode (36mp images) additive image Timelapse (image stacking) and a few other modes and how they all work.
NB:
Registrations essential as numbers are limited due to current Covid restrictions.  
March NSW ACS Drop In Registration LINK
A gentle call out to friends of Phil Balsdon...

 Now would be a terrific time to plan a visit.
Noted Steadicam operator Phil Balsdon, has been supported continuously since 2012, after a major stroke, by the Motion Picture Industry Benevolent Society, particularly by MPIBS's Tom Jeffrey who keeps constant contact with him.

Recently Phil had a major fall, breaking a hip & leg in two places & would really benefit from a visit from his friends, particularly those on the Northern Beaches.

Piet de Vries ACS, Ray Henman & I  have visited him over the past week & he would welcome more of us after so long in various stages of his rehabilitation. 

He is at the Mona Vale Beachside Rehabilitation Unit (@ Mona Vale Hospital).

David Wakeley ACS
VALE Stanley (Stan) Moore 6.3.1928 - 19.2.2021

For those of us who attended North Sydney Technical College in the 1980s or 90s you will be saddened by the news of the passing of one of our tudors and a man of great early Australian industry experience, Stan Moore.
Stanley Moore, seated at Westrex editing machine as he edits 'The Stowaway' (1958) and Tony Buckley files the off-cuts. Australia’s top film editors”, 
Photo (courtesy of Tony Buckley) 


           Vale film editor Stanley (Stan) Moore, who died on 19 February.
                          Written history compiled by Graham Shirley.

Recognised by producer-director Tony Buckley as “my great mentor and one of Australia’s top film editors”, Moore worked with the ‘Cinesound Review’ newsreel as a cameraman during World War 2, and by the early 1950s was that newsreel’s principal editor.

In the late 1950s he edited the Australian/French co-produced features ‘The Stowaway’ (1958) and ‘Dust in the Sun’ (1959), with the Australian partner being Southern International, founded by Lee Robinson and Chips Rafferty.

After returning to Cinesound for several years in the early 1960s, Stan headed the editing department of Ajax Films, followed by a period as manager of the Ajax Film Centre in the former Cinesound studio at Bondi Junction.

His final two features as editor were the Japanese-produced ‘The Drifting Avenger’ (1968) and the Australian/US co-production, ‘Squeeze a Flower’ (1970). He subsequently edited for ABC-TV and taught film editing at the North Sydney TAFE.

In 2001 Stan was the subject of an oral history for NFSA, conducted by fellow editors Graham Wieland and Keith Kanaar. NFSA also holds Stan’s unpublished 1992 autobiography,

    ‘The Dark Ages: My Experiences in Australian Film Production, 1944-1976’.

Additionally, State Library of NSW holds Neville Govett’s 1989 oral history with Stan.

If you love drones, your going to love this footage...

Right Up Our Alley

2021—The year Ahead and is the Revival on?
In May 2020, I was honoured to put a small piece together for the ACS whilst in the midst of the Covid lockdown storm. The period April until June/July (for NSW) illustrated just how fragile our economy is balanced.

Lockdown sent most of the Film and TV Industry into hibernation, a period that was finely balanced between economic survival and an uncontrolled Covid outbreak. Thankfully, that worse period seems behind us all now thanks to a whole lot of Governments and Agencies Support and spirit with our communities that saw us navigate away from a much worse scenario.

But as most businesses continue to recover from the impacts of Covid coinciding with the end of JK2 are we out of the woods as a Country yet? I suspect not completely... spare a thought for the Aviation, Education, Event and some Tourism sectors that may never recover.

Pleasingly, we are seeing uplifts in revenues across a majority of businesses in the Film and TV sector seeking new finance, returns to pre-Covid activity and beyond in some cases. In my recent travels to Production studios and locations it has been pleasing to see many clients back on the tools, Productions facilities full to the brim and a vibe not seen for many years.
After a period of uncertainty, banks and lending institutions are providing us with some clear lending policies, bespoke solutions that are sympathetic to the genuine affects that Covid put before us. With much confidence the sense is we are over the most challenging set of circumstances seen in my 30 year plus commercial finance career.
With studios at capacity, crews in demand, arguably the future is bright as we defy Global pandemic trends. From May move forward to now, I reach out to the ACS community in a much more positive manner.

The upcoming period could well present opportunities that will support sensible Capital investment. As a passionate advocate I continue to be here to assist with any advice on those growth opportunities that may soon present themselves. 
Yours in film!

Andrew Barley 
andrewb@macfin.com.au  
0412521031
ACS Celebrates a Pioneer of Cinematography:

Dorothy Hallam, First female cinematographer at the ABC
 
This week as we celebrate International Women’s Day and all the wonderful women that work in our industry the ACS is delighted to showcase one of the pioneering women behind the camera.
 
Last year the ACS Tasmanian branch presented Dorothy Hallam an Honorary Membership of the ACS.
Dorothy’s interest in photography began at a very young age and she used to develop her own stills.  In the early 1960s, after buying a 16mm Bolex with 3 interchangeable lenses from ABC staff cinematographer Warwick Curtis, she started to shoot stories in the Tasmanian Peninsula area for the ABC.
When the ABC stopped shooting film in Tasmania all the film archives ended up in the ABC archives in Sydney. Thanks to a grant from Arts Tasmania, producer James Parker was able to retrieve 60-70 items from the ABC archives. Fortunately Dorothy recorded and kept the sound recorded from 28 of the original TV broadcasts which have now been synced up with her original images.

The unearthing of these films brings back into the spotlight some of Dorothy’s inspiring work and highlights her skills both as a cinematographer and storyteller.
Please take the time to watch this story produced for the ABC on Dorothy Hallam:
Start planning your trip to the Capital...

Fantastic opportunity to get together and celebrate the industry with your peers.

Save the Day!
#whoisinyourcrew

As you think about all your 2021 projects...

we ask you to be mindful
& think about who is in your crew...

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Australian Cinematographers Society
Level 2, 26 Ridge Street, NORTH SYDNEY, NSW 2060

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