qld acs newsletter ed. 176 May 2011 President s Update Tim McGahan ACS Well it is that time of year again and the National ACS awards and half yearly meeting was held in Adelaide over the May long weekend. I would like to congratulate our Queensland award winners Simon Christidis ACS with a Golden Tripod for his work on Oceans in the Wildlife & Nature category, Tony Luu ACS a Golden Tripod in Documentaries, Cinema & TV for Who we Are and an Award of Distinction to Gamal El Boushi in the TV Station Breaks/Promo for Masr Elnahrda - Egypt Today. The new ACS website was launched over the weekend and with it comes the new membership portal. We are also approaching the conclusion of the financial year and our membership cycle, there are still some members with outstanding dues and we have been working our way through contacting these members to seek payment and confirm memberships or discontinue a membership. National Awards 2011 The 40th ACS National Awards for Cinematography, were held by the Australian Cinematographers Society at the Hotel Grand Chancellor, Hindley Street, Adelaide, on Saturday 30 April. The internationally recognised, Australian cinematographer, John Seale AM ACS ASC was the Guest of Honour. This year s awards ceremony, the biggest in the history of the Society, were marked by the induction of three more Australian filmmakers to the ACS Hall of Fame. The new inductees Ron & Valerie Taylor and Malcolm Richards bring the number of Australian Cinematographers recognised in the Hall of Fame to 54, where they have joined such internationally renowned cinematographers as Russell Boyd ACS ASC, Don McAlpine ACS ASC, Dean Semler OAM ACS ASC and Peter James ACS ASC. As I have said before the management of the membership, fees, cards etc hasn t been ideal in the past but we are very close to a final solution, so I thank you for your patience. Tim McGahan ACS & John Seale AM ACS ASC at the 2011 ACS National Awards One of the highlights of the evening was the much anticipated announcement of the MILLI Award for Australian Cinematographer of the Year. This years MILLI award recipient is Greig Fraser for his outstanding work on the feature film Bright Star. Other awards presented included the ACS International Award for Cinematography which is open to all feature film cinematographers and the Neil Davis International News Award, the NFSA-ACS John Leake OAM ACS Award to an emerging cinematographer as well as 18 Golden Tripod Awards in categories from Student to Feature Film. A full list of winners can be found in this edition of Viewfinder. QLD President - Tim McGahan ACS The glittering, black-tie ceremony, one of the highlights on Australia s show biz and screen industries calendars, will be broadcast on the Movie Network channel, STARPICS on Saturday, May 7 at 8.30pm.
National Headquarters: Up & Running! Walking through the various areas and rooms the fabulous digital display of the ACS Hall of Fame hours of fun to be had there checking out all the goss on the impressive roster board, wandering through the Bruce Hillyard room, seeing the swish AC Magazine office, combing through the Robert Feeney ACS Archives it all just works!! And again, many of our National Sponsors have been integral in assisting the ACS in fitting out the HQ in the style that was envisioned. by Karen Hayward There have been some fairly significant milestones celebrated by the ACS in the past few years including our 50th anniversary celebrations in Sydney back in 2008. One was definitely reached on the 3rd of March with the opening of the ACS Headquarters on Level 2, 26 Ridge Street, North Sydney. I have been privy to the enormous amount of work involved in bringing the ACS HQ to fruition, witnessing our Federal President, Ron Johanson ACS work tirelessly and our Queensland President, Tim McGahan ACS sitting on the HQ sub committee in making this dream very much a reality, And so it was with great pleasure that I received an invitation to the grand opening and quickly decided that this was a night I didn t want to miss. Now, the ACS is a Society for Cinematographers, not interior designers and I must admit that I didn t quite know what to expect in terms of the refurbishments that I knew had been taking place. I may have had high rise DOP s man cave with beer fridge pictured in my head. Think about it However, stepping out of the lift at Level 2 and walking into the John Leake OAM ACS ACS HQ was one of the most pleasant surprises I ve had in quite a while. (I know, I must get out more but it s true!) There were some very heartfelt and moving speeches and I don t think I was the only one who had a tear in my eye as Marion Leake, Nita Gardiner, Mary Wood & Norma Feeney, the four delightful widow s of these inspiring men did the honours and officially unveiled the John Leake OAM ACS plaque. I felt honoured to be in the room and part of this historic night. It felt like the Australian Cinematographers Society has taken a very big leap into the future nothing like having a place to call your own! I know that for many Queensland members, the opportunities to utilise the HQ will be few but I would encourage you to arrange to drop in if you are in Sydney I believe that the aim is to have someone from the NSW branch there most of the time and if you are planning on a visit just give them a call so they can get the welcome mat out. (btw - there is a beer fridge, and it s pretty well stocked!!!) What a fantastic space and it looked great filled up with so many ACS stalwarts, sponsors and friends of the Society. I was very proud at that moment to call myself an ACS member. It was wonderful to see our very own John Stokes ACS and Simon Christidis ACS amongst those in the room. The team that created this elegant oasis lead by Project Manager, David Lewis ACS aka Spider, Designer, Dee Molineaux and Tony Moss and ably assisted by David Burr ACS, Ted Rayment ACS, Ron Windon ACS, Lester Bishop and David Wakeley ACS & Marianne Wakeley must all be congratulated on an outstanding job.
ACS NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
by Tim McGahan ACS Sometimes the planets just align and my visit to NAB 2011 was one of those times. Having just finished a shoot in the UK the day before NAB started Las Vegas seemed so close, too close, not to take advantage of. As an NAB virgin there was much to see and be dazzled by. It is an interesting time in our business and there are many suppliers racing to get new products to market. So the highlights for me NAB 2011 Panasonic s 150 Inch 4k Plasma was certainly of interest to the insanely rich who are over the high maintenance cost of video projectors. So big, so sharp and an awesome picture. There was still a buzz around 3d rigs but more of a focus on 3d rigs for Outside Broadcast and sports applications. On the lower end of the camera market the Sony NX cam with Super 35mm sensor, the Sony F3 and Panasonic AG- AF100 dominated the stands. It seems to be clear that a strong message has been sent and the PL mount lenses are becoming the norm across all price points of cameras with manufacturers offering many more options for lens mounts. Go pro has done it again with a 3d multiple camera housing and custom software to create a 3d solution under $1k that offers all of the advantages we have come to expect from using small go pro cameras. NAB was all about the add ons and accessories. Matte boxes, handles, shoulder rigs were on display from many manufacturers, HDMI and SDI electronic viewfinders were big, as were third party HDMI and SDI solid state recorders. Blackmagic released the hyperdeck with 10 bit recording for $345 US and the Ninja and Samurai products have a neat little kit that even offers a medium res monitor with apple pro res recording hdmi or sdi in (unfortunately this won t work for the likes of the 5d as it doesn t output a clean hdmi frame). On the camera front Arri was displaying a 120fps Alexa model as well as the square sensor studio Alexa complete with Optical flip over viewfinder. Red Cinema was all about the Epic with a short demo film being projected in 4k. However the show stealer was undoubtedly Sony s release of the F65. The 20 mega pixel, 8k sensor with mechanical shutter captures to Sony s SRW Drive at 4k res. Similar in size and look to the F35 this camera will also do high frame rates. The pictures from this camera were very impressive the dynamic range and the cameras native ISO were highlighted in the Sony produced demo film projected at 4k. New glass on display at NAB SONY F65-8K indulgence There were a few new lens release of interest, Leica had there new t1.4 high end lens set on display, the Cooke Panchro re release as well as new 4k PL mount cine zooms from Canon. Angenieux, Zeiss, and Arri lenses also had a strong presence. It is obviously pretty difficult to demo a lens on a stand at NAB but it will be interesting to shoot with some of these new releases if they make it through to our rental houses.
Panasonic released a new 9 inch monitor that was pretty neat and at a good price point with higher resolution than the previous model with new 3d assist functions. Also on the monitor front was a demonstration of Sony s new O- LED technology. These monitors are aimed at the high end but are truly beautiful, so sharp, so vibrant, very fast response and blacker blacks than we have ever seen in high end CRT grading monitors. In the lighting space it seems every second stand was booked by an emerging start up Chinese OEM LED lighting manufacture company. These products ranged from average to good in both Litepanel type of panels and high output LED s. My pick was actually the USA manufacturers who have come up with some very good robust LED packages. Arri had on display their new L-series LED Fresnel s, in my humble opinion they are certainly the best quality of light output of any fixture I saw. The bad news is they are heavy, with a noisy cooling fane or very heavy with the heat sink model and they are expensive. 4 thousand dollars will buy you a fresnel with an output equivalent to a 1k pup in either a tungsten, daylight or colour version. However this is probably a necessary step in the development process. If you feel like you need to get back in touch with your creative side, Remoteness is an interesting exhibition being held in Brisbane during May, at the QUT Creative Industries Precinct. Remoteness showcases video and experimental media art of digital artists from around the globe. These artists draw upon the social, emotional and physical remoteness that has come to define our modern-day environment, one that is both more connected and more isolated than ever. Artists include: Feeling Arty? Christopher Baker (USA) Johanna Billing (Sweden) Hiroharu Mori (Japan) Yasmin Heisler (Australia) Vinegar Tom (Australia) Geoffrey Weary (Australia) Nathani Luneburg (South Africa) Joel Stern (Australia) Ash Keating (Australia) Rebecca Ann Hobbs (Australia/NZ) Dennis Del Favero (Australia) Brian O Reilly (USA/Singapore) Lin Yilin (PR China/USA) Colin Harman (Australia) Marko Mäetamm (Estonia) Louis-Philippe Demers (Singapore) Matthew Perkins (Australia) Dr. Elaine Miles (Australia) Lea Rekow (Australia) Ze Germans get on board with LED technology The long and the short of it is that there are many manufacturers working hard to make our lives as cinematographers better at the expense of rental companies, who must continually play the upgrading game. Exciting times, exciting gear in the expanding tool chest of the cinematographer. The exhibition will be held in The Block and Parer Place Urban Screen, and run from the 4-21 May, with the following hours: Tuesday & Wednesday 2.00pm-6:30pm Thursday & Friday 2.00pm-7:30pm Saturday 4.00pm-7:30pm Admission is FREE Contact: 07 3138 5495 For more information on the latest news & releases from NAB 2011, head to http://www.nabshow.com/
Dinosaurs on Digital by Lucas Tomoana It wasn t long after graduating Griffith film school that I was offered an opportunity to shoot a project. The director, Michael Sloane, and I studied together at Griffith and we both expressed interest in eventually collaborating on a project, we just didn t know what. The opportunity soon arose to shoot a music video together for Brisbane band Last Dinosaurs, for their single Time and Place. The concept, a group of stragglers search for power, in a dystopian future where earth and technology have become one. As soon as Michael gave me the call, I jumped at the chance as I was itching to shoot. With a small budget from the record label, a crew of five and I headed out with the band in mid January to Northern NSW. Our location, a property lying somewhere near the town of Woodenbong (which we still, to this day, are not exactly sure where it is). The floods had just passed a couple weeks before, and after so much delay we set out crossing our fingers, hoping that we were still able to actually drive to the location. Luckily, after several detours, we made it. Due to budget and time restraints, we chose HDSLR for our format. They re small, lightweight, give you HD, that depth of field everyone raves about and they re cheap. I m sure many in the ACS are sick to death from hearing about them so I will try not to go into too much detail. We shot on both Canon 5D MkII and 7D, no rigs, just the camera body, two L series Zoom Lenses and an 85 L series prime. The 5D was used primarily for the artists performing at 30fps, played back at a 25fps time base to smooth things over. The 7D travelled with us for its 50fps capabilities for majority of our cutaways, all played back at 25. Our main location on the property was a creek that had been devastated by the floods from weeks past. We tried to travel as light as possible as the creek was quite large and we didn t have the time or crew or even two 4WDs! Things were slow transporting crew and gear, but we made do. All our equipment was very portable and our lighting was very minimal. One essential piece of equipment we brought along was the Kessler Cineslider, kindly hired from the services of Rich Wang, Mick Smith and Digby Hogan. It really made the difference and helped with our tight schedule. Its light, 5ft of track, and can be set on two stands in about 5 minutes. Without it we would ve needed much larger track, a dolly and crew to level it on the uneven terrain, which is something we just couldn t afford. It was a great piece of equipment and I highly recommend it. Thanks Rich! Kessler Cineslider setup One thing mentioned constantly in preproduction was that Michael didn t want the clip to look have that typical HD- SLR look. So we adopted a method many have been using. Simply we shot for the grade and underexposed a fair amount. I know it doesn t sound like an exact science but we just made sure to avoid any blown out highlights simply by eye. Sometimes we underexposed by 3 stops and the results were great, the footage allowed us to pull it all back up in the grade. I also tried to avoid a very shallow depth of field and often closed the aperture to 5.6, 8 and sometimes 11. It took away a lot of the sharpness and helped the audience to see the magnificent location. After my end of year screenings at university, a number of graduation films were shot on HD- SLR and I found myself staring at a blurred screen a lot of the time and it gave me a headache. So Mike and I made a mental note to ourselves to avoid that as much as possible and use it when appropriate. It was a long weekend, a long trip back home and one lucky cow almost copped a 4WD travelling at 70kms an hour. The clip was quickly churned out of post in less than a week, and the results turned out quite nicely for us. To me, it was just a small project but I had no idea it would eventually grab 450 000 views on youtube, get featured on cinema5d. com and break the record for most video hits in one day for the record label. A big surprise to the crew and myself. Lucas lines up a shot of lead singer, Sean. Of course I m fresh out of university and I still I have much much more to learn in the years ahead. Thanks very much again to the ACS for giving us the opportunity to share our work with the industry as well as many talented people who we look up to, it is very much appreciated! You can view the clip HERE.
Paparazzi! send in your pictures to: mitch@mitchkennedyfilm.com 1. Mitch Kennedy giving the Alexa and cineslider a run, on a spot for Wild Media. 2. Tim McGahan ACS on location from Cambodia with Blacklab International. 3. Brendan Williams ACS & Se an Moss shooting at Yellowknife in -40 C...brrrrr 4. Brad Dillon shooting helicopter aerials in the Swiss Alps...in 3D! Short Ends Andrew Conder SOC ACS and Zenon Butch Sawko are both about to finish shooting on Lightning Point. Tony Luu ACS is in Bangkok shooting a TVC for Skittles China. Nino Martinetti ACS has just finished up on a TVC with company Elephant Stamp - using the Arri Alexa. Shooting Channel 9 props & effects extravaganzas for QUT - Nick Paton ACS. Jason Hargreaves seen shooting on the Alexa in New Farm Park for a TVC with Blacklab. Brigham Edgar has been pedal to the metal on Amazing Race Australia. Scott Kimber has just wrapped on a short film trailer for upcoming feature Rarity.