From the Pres / National Awards Summary
The 2017 National Awards for Cinematography were held in Sydney on May 6 and SA members came away with 1 Gold Tripod and 2 Awards of Distinction. At these awards the new Gold tripod was unveiled for the first time, see picture on the left. Many thanks to Lester Bishop and the NSW committee for this superb incarnation of our prestigious award. Congratulations go to the hard working and dedicated NSW committee for a great Awards as well as all the other events on the preceding nights. On Sunday May 7 the National AGM followed at 9am! Your committee members Mylene, JoAnne, Viv Madigan and I represented our branch. This all day meeting is held to formulate what the Society will do to keep things contemporary and running smoothly. We must have done something bad in a past life!
 Piers and Lennon proudly show their Awards. |
Congratulations go to Piers Mussared with an Award of Distinction in category 3. Experimental & Specialised for his Virtual Reality entry - The Unseen House. A Gold Tripod to Lennon Cooper for Horse Riding Triathlete in category 6. Syd Wood ACS Local / National News. Geoffrey Hall ACS was awarded an Award of Distinction for Episode 4 of the Wolf Creek TV series in category 17. The Milli Award for 2017 Australian Cinematographer of the Year was awarded to NSW member Abraham Joffe for the documentary Tales By Light - Darren Jew: Submerged
 After the screening of the film Ellery & Sky took us through some of the rushes in the SAFC theatre. Photo J B-Sellick. |
On 19th April 21 ACS members attended the Preview screening & Q&A of Emo the Musical with Ellery Ryan ACS & Sky Davies. These two very talented cinematographers were very honest about how they shot it and it was good to hear about the difficulties and solutions of shooting a low budget feature film. Thanks again to the SAFC for their support and use of the theatre for this session. Don't forget put Saturday October 28 on hold for the 37th Annual SA & WA Awards for Cinematography which will be held at the Adelaide Oval with pre dinner drinks in the Rick Davies Bar overlooking the oval whilst the formal presentation will be a sit down dinner in the Cathedral Room. Entry dates for the SA & WA Awards have changed to August 1 and close CoB on August 22. If you have an idea for a trade or educational night suggest it to either myself or one of your committee, their names are on the SA page of our website.
Membership renewals
Membership renewal invoices will be sent out soon and are payable by June 30. There have been a couple of changes in the membership categories to clarify some confusion regarding Full and Active membership. Full Membership will now be known as CINEMATOGRAPHER.
Active Membership will now be known as CAMERA CREW. ** Please note that if you have been working as a professional cinematographer for a period of at least 3 years, then you should upgrade your Camera Crew (previous Active) membership to CINEMATOGRAPHER. Please advise the treasurer treasurersa@austcine.org.au if you need to upgrade your membership status. ** **Students If you have completed your studies, please advise and upgrade your membership to Camera Crew.** It is important to keep us informed if you need to upgrade your membership status especially if you intend applying for Accreditation in the future. Check the all membership categories via the link below.
2017 SASA Winners
At the recent South Australian Screen Awards SA ACS members came away with some big awards. Congratulations go to: Maxx Corkindale who won Best Cinematography for Smashed. Kirsty Stark who Produced the Best Comedy Richard Chataway Producer / Cinematographer and Director Michael Cusack for the Best Animation Film After All. See next eNews item!
After All screening & Q&A
 Director Michael Cusack & DoP / Producer Richard Chataway ACS on the set of After All |
Join the masters of animation - Michael Cusack and Richard Chataway from Anifex for a screening of their short film AFTER ALL, which recently screened in the International Competition at the Annecy International Festival of Animated Film in France. The screening will be followed by a Q&A about their work on the film. All tickets include pizza and drinks after the Q&A. Hosted by the Australian Cinematographers Society SA Branch. FREE for ACS members
$10 for students and Guild members
$15 for other attendees
Bookings are essential for all wishing to attend. Please use the link below to book. Bookings close Sunday June 4. 6pm for 6:30 screening.
Adelaide Studios Screening Theatre
226 Fullarton Road, Glenside, SA 5065 *Please come to the back, glass doors of the studios for entry to the theatre.*
Profile Daniel Soekov ACS
 Dan gets served lunch on the run from ex PM Rudd in 2007 |
Hi Daniel, please tell us what's your favourite film? Trainspotting. It's one of the earliest films I watched that got me hooked on cinema. That and Requiem for a Dream which is also gritty, confronting and brilliantly shot, with a banging soundtrack. And your favourite recent TV series? Mr Robot. The way cinematographers such as Tod Campbell and John Conroy (Luther) use unconventional framing to create visual tension is breaking away from text book style cinematography. They're throwing out the rule book, and it's exciting!
 Shooting at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 |
When did you first become interested in the industry? I did media studies in school, and ended up spending all my time making short films rather than working on other subjects. A year later, I fell into a camera job in news. I was in the right place at the right time. What did you do, when you decided to further your skills?
I went overseas. I had been working in news for seven years, and I wanted to try different things. I'd always loved travelling, so I combined the two and ended up in Beijing working for a production company, shooting documentaries, corporate videos and international news. It was a base to travel all over Asia, and eventually the rest of the world.
 Dan shooting in Afghanistan in 2013 |
Most interesting project so far? Covering the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. After Beijing, I moved to London and continued working with international outlets. The Arab Spring erupted while I was in Europe, and I was lucky enough to travel to the regions affected. There was so much going on around us, and we genuinely felt we were witnessing history being made.
 Dan frames up in Sydney 2016 |
Any challenges you faced doing that? The region was unpredictable. It was a war zone, but the divisions weren't clear. We were unsure what areas were safe, and basic amenities were hard to come by... finding water, food, electricity, even accommodation was a daily struggle. What's next for you? Sydney is home now. It allows me to shoot a variety of different programs. It's an exciting time in our industry with new technology developing all the time. There are some negative voices, but I'm excited because these changes bring new opportunities for cinematographers. The push is for online and multi platform content and the tools, such as gimbals, drones and virtual reality cameras, are giving us new ways to tell stories in different mediums. Thanks Daniel, congratulations again on recently gaining your ACS letters, very well deserved. Ed
Image Preservation, can you help?
Preservation of our images is vitally important. As you would be aware, recorded and filmed images don't last forever but we need to preserve them for historical and cultural reasons. Recently Michael Veitch the Film Preservation Officer from the State Library of South Australia contacted me about what they are trying to achieve at the library regarding Image Preservation. At the State Library they have quite a collection of film and video relating to the State. They mostly have analogue players of video including J-type (B&W), 1, beta-super, S-vhs, U-matic sp, Hi8, betacam sp and digi, dvcpro 25 & DVcam. They have a SAMMAsolo used to digitise the video signals into Lossless Motion Jpeg 2000 as well as other formats including jpeg-2 for access with full metadata on the mxf file. The SAMMAsolo was developed for the Library of Congress for their automation process. Have a look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8QvfimOfko&t=34s They only have one unit that transfers one video signal at a time!
For film they have a greater than 2K flashscan Choice to digitise 16mm, 9.5mm, super and regular 8mm film. Check it out at https://www.mwa-nova.com/flashtransfer_choice.html 16mm film is scanned as DPX files at 2048 x 1556. It is then recoded to a Master Archive Package using Lossless DCP software. Sometime they scan to 2336 x 1757 if the film is important. On occasions they can generate files that are more than 400GB in their final configuration!
Recently they lost their good JVC S-vhs with inbuilt TBC and have some of their other S-vhs players faltering. If any of our ACS members can help with players and expertise it would be of great help. Even if the players don't work they may be able to use them for spare parts to help keep their machines operational. Please contact Michael via the link below if you think you can help. Thanks Pres.
In Sydney soon?
 Viv Madigan, JoAnne Bouzianis Sellick and Piers Mussared recently attended the ACS cocktail party and stills exhibition at our National HQ. |
If you are planning a trip or shoot in Sydney please consider dropping into our National HQ in North Sydney. The clubhouse is great, the old gear, memorabilia, mementos and library are just incredible and worth visiting too see for that alone. Just contact Richard Wilmot or David Lewis ACS and check out your HQ, grab a coffee or use the internet. It's great and it's for all ACS members. If you are in Sydney when it's the third Thursday of the month why not go to a HQ Drop in Evening where cinematographers or suppliers may be showing some of their work or products. Contact HQ Manager
David Lewis ACS
dlewis@cinematographer.net.au
0408 273 702
Upcoming dates
June 1 Invoice 2017/2018 Membership June 5 Committee Meeting June 6 After All screening & Q&A @ SAFC June 30 membership renewals due July 1 Accreditation Applications window opens July 3 Committee Meeting July 30 Accreditation Applications window closes August 1 SA & WA Awards Entry Open August 14 SA AGM August 22 SA & WA Awards Entry Close September 4 Committee Meeting September 8 Sponsor Assets Deadline September 15, 16 & 17 SA & WA Awards Judging in SA October 2 Committee Meeting October 13 & 14 Accreditation Submission Reviews October 15 National OGM October 28th 37th Annual SA & WA Awards for Cinematography @ Adelaide Oval November 6 Committee Meeting December 4 Committee Meeting
ACS online shop open
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