PROFILE ON PETER BENISON CSC

THE CANAU IAi , -;u,: IE - ' JF Clf\JEMATOGRAPHERS

,\1 • ··N s· ·-· T 1- c.: R . [ - t::: ' c

VOL. 10 NO.9 MAY 1991 TORONTO, CANADA ISSN 0820-3431

CONTENTS

Profile on Peter Benison esc 3

CSC Awards 9

Everything's Coming up Digital 14

Camera Assistants Course 16

Carrottop Comer 18

Clairmont Camera is on the

Lot at North Shore Studios.

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2

The Canadian Societ) c" Cinematographers was founded in 1957 by a group of Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa cameramen. Since then, over 700 cinematographers and persons in associated occupations have joined the organization. Our members now represent the film and video community in all ten provinces.

Our aim continues to be to promote and foster the cause of cinematography and the interests of the Canadian film and video community.

We facilitate the dissemination and exchange of technical information, and endeavour to advance the knowledge and status of our members within the industry. As an organi­zation dedicated to furthering technical as­sistance, we maintain contact with nonparti­sangroups in our industry, but have no politi­cal or union affiliation.

CSC Executive

President: Robert Bocking esc Vice-President: Joan Hutton esc

Secretary: Wang Chow

Treasurer: Duncan MacFarlane esc

Membership Chairman: Jim Mercer esc

Public Relations: Lori Longstaff,

Kenneth Post esc

Education: John Holosko

Awards Chairman: Jim Mercer esc

Membership inquiries: (416) 271-4684

Editorial Office and CSC Office: 89 Pinewood Trail Port Credit, Ontario L5G 2L2 Tel: (416) 271-4684 Fax: (416) 271-7360

Editor in chief: Robert Bocking, esc Editor: Jennifer Hietala

The Newsletter is printed in Toronto and is published ten times a year. Subscriptions are available for $75.00 per year in Canada and $95.00 outside the country.

Cover: Peter Benison esc and Ernie Kestler on location for "The Dance Goes On".

APRIL1991

PROFILE ON PETER BENISON esc

by Wang Chow

CSCNEWS 3

At the CSC Awards in April, the award for best cinematography in a feature film went to Peter Benison esc for his film Whispers. Peter graciously accepted this honour, his second esc award in three years. The two sculptures now balance each other at opposite ends of the mantel in his east end Toronto home.

Whispers is a mystery-thriller based on Dean R. Koontz's novel of the same name. The scenario re­volves around a writer, Hilary Thomas (Victoria Ten­nant) who meets a prominent orchard owner Bruno Oavel (Jean Leclerc) while doing research for a book. He thinks she is his evil (dead) mother reincarnated and attempts to murder her. She manages to kill him in the process. The twist lies in the fact that her tormentor, though dead, keeps coming back for more. Eventually, the confronta­tion escalates to a climax at the farmer's ancestral man­sion. The finale exposes the motive for the attacks and gives the story a clear ending.

Shot primarily in the Montreal area, Whispers had six weeks of principal photography in many loca­tions, much of which involved travelling to the country­side.

While most of the shooting presented the usual challenges, one particularly difficult scene involved Ten­nant and her nemesis, who were facing each other as they walked in a circle, exchanging their positions. The challenge for Benison was that Tennant was always softly lit. Her attacker, on the other hand, was always seen in harsh light. To maintain the lighting continuity, Beni­son lit an area approximately two feet behind the assail­ant's starting position with soft lights. By careful or­chestration of the action, Tennant walked into this pool of light instead of the other. Only a trained eye can tell that she does not end up in his spot.

Whispers was a very positive experience for Beni­son. Director Doug Jackson not only provided guidance while they were discussing the "look" of the film, but also the freedom and trust to execute it once shooting started. Peter was very pleased to have been able to work again with production designer Charles Dunlop dur­ing pre-production where together they designed sets with the DOP's requirements in mind. Benison elaborates on the inter-relationship between his work and that of the production designer.

"One thing that everybody likes is to have some depth. It makes a shot a lot more interesting from the composition point of view. .Also, I can get different

planes of light to create the 3-D effect. I can put patterns on the wall, I can have lights coming from different angles to give modelling.

"I hate lighting from the front not only in terms of the 'look', but also because of the constant concern for boom shadows. Therefore, I always try to work in a set that has the space in order to hide my lights from the side or back. The colour and texture of sets are usu­ally related to the story.

"I prefer to stay with the mid­tones because when you are lighting actors you want to be able to control the background. The mid-tones allow more flexibility if you want to keep it [the background] down or bring it up. You can work a lot faster. This is im­portant when you are working for tele­vision because you are constantly fight­ing the clock. Anything that has a high gloss will create glare and reflections. In many cases it may be appropriate. For example, in high-tech labs where the gloss is part of the design. Many of these things are part of the story and sometimes you walk on a set that is full of glass doors and mirrors - it be­comes a nightmare."

Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, produced in 1987, is a totally different kind of film than Whis­pers. It is a science fiction television series that takes place in 2147 AD. Lord Dread, who is half human, half machine, supported by his arm of "bio-dreads" wants to tum the world into a mechani­cal entity. Standing between humanity and Lord Dread's perverted ambition is Captain Power and a small remnant of high-tech warriors.

While the premise was not unique, the treatment was. Captain Power was the first interactive TV se­ries with a toy tie-in. The most crucial link for the interactivity between the program and the audience was the toy gun made by Mattei. With this toy gun, the viewer in the comforts of his

4 MAY1991

living room can fire at designated tar­gets on screen and score points. At the other end, the computer generated char­acters carried electronic sensors that inter­act with the toy gun. They are capable of firing back at the audience. Points are taken off if they hit their marks.

The interactivity was made pos­sible by small light boxes that the Dread troopers wore in their suits. These light boxes were in ultimatte green. In post production, electronic sensors developed by Mattei, were dropped into the areas occupied by the light boxes and the sen­sors became the receptor points. The show was essentially a clever market­ing vehicle for Mattei's toy guns.

In addition to the interactive aspect, the production crew had to con­tend with a live action/animation tie-in. A life-size cardboard cut out of the computer generated character was used during set ups and rehearsals to give actors their eye-lines and also to enable the camera crew to set their focus points. Also invaluable was the video gear that integrated the "pencil test" or a roughed­in animated character with the live ac­tion. The size, perspective, position and movement of the computer generated character was recorded on video tape, supered on to the live action, and played back. Further adjustments were then made.

Accurate notes on the camera angle, lens, height and the distance from the computer generated character to the lens were kept. In the actual take, the cardboard cut out was taken away. The actors would maintain their eye-lines and focus pullers would rack focus as if the computer generated character were ac­tually there. Follow focus was neces­sary to create the illusion that the ani­mated characters are solid, tangible en­tities. As they moved closer to the cam­era, the focus shifted accordingly, sof­tening the background.

In order to assist the animators in understanding where the lights were

CSCNEWS

coming from and how they were re­flected, three beach balls - one white, one silver and one copper - were filmed on set at the beginning of each scene. Using the beach balls as reference, the animators were able to reproduce the same lighting on the computer gener­ated characters in post production.

From the outset, Benison and producers Gary Goddard and Anthony Christopher had agreed on a moody, textured film look. The lighting was to be contrasty, low key but crisp. Front lighting was avoided whenever possible. The exposure was kept at T4.5. T4.5 was chosen because the set contained many computer screens, flashing lights and practicals that would burn out and bleed if over-exposed. The extra depth of field also provided a margin of safety when actors failed to hit their marks. This enabled the production to move along briskly.

Each half hour show took five days to shoot using the 35mm Mov­iecam Super America camera with video assist. Kodak 5294 rated at 400 ASA was used for all the indoor sets while 5247 was used for exteriors. The green screen and composite work were shot on 5295, a Kodak effects stock.

Green screen was chosen for the flying and matte work sequences over blue screen because the colour of the uniforms were close to the shade of blue used in the blue screen.

The primary location for Cap­tain Power was an abandoned bus main­tenance depot on Sorauran Avenue in Toronto. The permanent sets and flying rigs were housed in this 35,000 square foot stage in front of a 30 x 90 ft. painted green screen eye with a 90 degree bend. As the size of the green screen was a limiting factor in the movements in the flying sequences, the illusion was en­hanced by camera movements.

Benison says, "We used a bar­rel rig for the camera. It is centered on the optical axis of the camera. The

5

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camera then rotates from side to side or spins 360 degrees on its lens axis. The character then appears to be going from side to side or doing barrel rolls in the sky. Of course the character is only hanging straight from a har­ness rig. All the movement is done with the barrel rig combined with cranes, zooms, pans and tilts."

Another challenge came in the way of the chrome suits worn by the warriors. The chrome picked up and reflected all colours including the ultimatte green. A thin coating of glue had to be applied on the suits to which sand was sprinkled. By breaking up the surface this way, hot reflections of the green ultimatte were prevented and the chrome look was maintained.

To simulate flying motion, a conveyor belt was built underneath the characters suspended on their harness rigs. These conveyor belts, rigged with cloth painted in sand and rock camouflage patterns, were cranked by hand, causing moving reflections on the chrome. These moving reflections created the effect of metal suited warriors flying over terrain.

Captain Power and the Sol­diers of the Future won the CSC Award

Peter Benison esc receiving CSC Award om 1988 for Best Cinematography in a lV Drama from presenters Fritz Spiess esc and Deborah Parks.

in 1988 for best cinematography in a TV drama.

At the time of writing Peter Benison has DOPed five feature films. He has also a string of second unit credits dating from the late 1970's when

L~l= Filters the 100 per cent tax write off fuelled a boom in the Canadian film industry. The boom has long since busted. And Peter has moved on. Some of the fea­tures that he has seconded include Joshua Then and Now, Terror Train, Dreamworld, The Gate and many more.

The Gate is an interesting film because it used a rather primitive tech­nique, one that is nearly as old as the cinema itself.

In this film, little sub-human monsters approximately 18 inches tall were terrorizing and attacking normal, full-sized people. In reality, the mon­sters were actually life-size adults. "Forced perspective" was used to make them look small. This technique is very simple in theory but difficult and painstaking to execute.

A cutaway set 50 feet away from the camera was designed to look

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like the continuation of the fore­ground set To trick the eye, all the props in the cutaway set were four times normal size. Because the windows, doors and tiles were four times as far away as the fore­ground, they appeared normal. Therefore, when the monsters were placed in the cutaway set, they were dwarfed by the distance and the oversized props.

When the two planes were lined up through the lens and the lighting perfectly matched, the sets appeared as one. To keep both planes in focus, a lOK-induced Til· was required. Also, since. the ac­tors from the two sets could not see each other, faked eye-lines were used. To complete the illusion, the ever present dividing line had to be hidden. This was usually ac­complished by a well-placed shadow or an object such as a garden hose running over the line.

Over the last twenty years Peter Benison has also lensed a number of industrials, documenta­ries, commercials and more recently, a variety of TV series. Currently Benison is co-DOPing Top Cops with Ron Stannett esc as well as adding the finishing touches to Paul Almond's film "The Dance Goes On". Originally from La Belle Prov­ince, Peter began his film career working for Wally Gentleman, a special effects expert who worked on 2001 , A Space Odessy.

In 1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono were in Canada, more specifically in bed, promoting peace with their slogan "make love, not war". Peter, a student at McGill University at the time, bluffed his way past heavy security using phony identification to interview John and Yoko in a Montreal hoteL Unfor­tunately for young · Benison, his companion who was along to take

CSCNEWS

pictures became so awe-struck that he miss-loaded the camera. Not one single picture was exposed. So they went back for a second visit This time Peter shot film (8mm) and his colleague took stills. Twenty some years later Peter says, with

7

a glint in his eye, that bluffing his way through security taught him the secret of how to become a successful cameraman. He is quick to point out though that un­like the John and Yoko experience, the DOP does not often get a second chance.

Nowaways, besides shooting, Benison is applying for Irish citizenship which would allow him greater access to the production industries in Europe. With the European Common Market poised to take effect in 1992, his timing is good. Since Peter currently commutes between his two homes in Montreal and Toronto one cannot help but wonder if he'll buy yet a third home in Ireland.

Peter believes the next few years will be tough ones for Canadian DOPs, citing that, in many cases, U.S. fea­tures and MOWs continue to bring in their own DOPs and an ever-increas­ing number of co-productions use the DOP position to fill quota requirements

· for the "other" country. Two years ago of all the films and MOWs listed by OFDC as being shot in Ontario, only 30% were lensed by Canadian camera­men. Peter feels that the role of the CSC in developing and promoting Ca­nadian talent is now more important than ever.

WANG CHOW

PETER BENISON esc FILMOGRAPHY

Features: The Dance Goes On, Whispers, Oklahoma Smugglers, Meatballs Three, Ups and Downs

Second Unit Features: Joshua Then and Now, The Gate, Hotel New Hampshire, Once Upon a Time in America, The Surrogate, Dreamworld, Visiting Hours, Cross Country, Of Unknown Origin, Hot Touch, Night Magic, Gas, Babe, Deathship, Terror Train, Tulips, Hog Wild, Crunch, Comics, My Bloody Valentine, The Vindicator

TV Dramas: My Secret Identity, Top Cops, Dog House, Twilight Zone, Captain Power, Diamonds, Hot Shots, Night Heat, Shades of Love

Numerous commercials and documentaries.

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REPORT ON THE 34TH ANNUAL CSC AWARDS

Over two hundred members, sponsors and guests attended this years Awards presentation at the Metropolitan Toronto Convention Centre. The evening fittingly began with a champagne reception, after all it is a time of celebration. The dinner, served in the grand ballroom at the Convention Centre, featured broiled swordfish with basil and lemon butter. The food was fabulous! The soothing music of the band "Triple Treat and Friends" filled the evening air throughout the lavish banquet. After dessert, coffee and liqueurs, we moved into the screening room for the awards presentation.

As always, an impressive array of skills and talents in various genre of filmmaking and videography were demonstrated. A list of the nominees, the winner and photographs appear on the following next pages.

Other highlights of the evening included the granting of life memberships to Kenneth Post esc, Ed Defay esc and Patrick Carey esc in recognition of their contributions to the Society.

Honourary membership was awarded to Dr. Anson Moorhouse. Dr. Moomouse made films for the United Church of Canada back in the early 1950s. His achievement was recognized by the CSC. Amid a standing ovation and thun­derous applause, Dr. Moorehouse motioned his former crew to join him on stage. Among them were Ed De fay, cameraman, Shirley Beatty, film editor and Monroe Scott, writer .

Also in attendance at this year's Awards dinner were the 1991 class of CSC camera assistants. I can't think of a better way to kick off their training than to spend an evening in a room full of OOPs. It is likely the best "networking" opportunity an assistant could find!

Ken Post esc with the assistance of third year Humber College film stu­dent Chirayouth (Jim) Saysana did the lighting of the stage.

And last but not least a hearty thank you to Jim Mercer, our awards chairman, and Jennifer Hietala- his committee. In the past few years the number of people attending the awards has increased significantly and yet the evening maintains· a friendly, intimate atmosphere. There is a tremendous amount of working involved and the organization needs more than just a committee of two ... so please keep this in mind next January and call either Jim or Jennifer to volunteer some of your time.

And now we come to our sponsors. Let's face it it's been a tough year for our sponsors and our members. To our sponsors, an especially heartfelt thanks ... to Kodak and Film House and Fuji for champagne and wine and liqueurs, to Arri/ N agra for the beautiful flowers, to Pat Cos way, Nick Paulozza and Andy Hunter of The Image Group for providing the on line tape edit and Chris Stone Audio Productions Ltd. for supplying the music. A special thanks to Bill Rhodes and Irene Jonaitis of MPI Productions for providing screening facilities for our juries and Medallion-PFA Labs Ltd. for sponsoring the student awards and Rosco for providing the music and William F. Whites for providing the program.

If you missed the awards and would like to purchase a copy of the showreel, please give Jennifer a call at (416) 271-4684.

See you again next year! WANG CHOW, SECRETARY

9

Barry Parrell receiving award from President Bob Bocklng esc

Robert Willcox presented the Bill Hilson Award to Peter Edwards

Jan• Crowe and Doug Kiefer esc with Joe Swlday of Arri/Nagra

Peter HartmCIM esc accepted Best Unique Production presented by Jemlfer Hetala

10

BEST INDUSTRIAL CINEMATOGRAPHY Barry Parrell 'The Spirit of Success' .Film Crew Productions Curtis Petersen esc 'Sea Doo 1991' Petersen Productions Curtis Petersen esc 'Ski Doo 1991' Petersen Productions

BEST UNIQUE CINEMATOGRAPHY Peter HartmCIM esc 'Canadian Red Cross: Water Babies' Michael Kodarlc 'U4EA Mystery' Tony Wannamaker 'Eyes Uke Fire'

BILL HILSON AWARD presented to Peter Edwards of Rosco

THE KODAK NEW CENTURY AWARD was presented to Kenneth Post esc

BEST DOCUMENTARY CINEMATOGRAPHY James Crowe 'Out of Control' Stomoway Productions Inc. Doug Kiefer esc 'Transplant - The Breath of Ufe' Camera One Films Ltd. Barry Perrell 'Dreams In the Dusr Film Crew Productions

BEST THEATRICAL FEATURE CINEMATOGRAPHY Peter Benison esc 'Whispers' Paul Huguenot van der linden esc 'Brown Bread Sandwiches'

Peter Benison esc accepting award from David Cheng of Fuji Photo Film.

MAY1991

Dominic Sciullo (CilY-TV) accepts Roy Tash Award from Kemeth Post esc Peter Warren (CJOH) accepts Stan Clinton Award from Ann COnlon

THE ROYTASH AWARD Keith Hanley 'Hagersville' CFTQ-Toronto Keith Hanley 'Takedown' CFTQ-Toronto Paul Regan 'Regent Park Shooting' CITY-TV Toronto Dominie Sciullo 'Scaffolding Rescuers' CllY-TV Toronto

THE STAN CUNTON AWARD Dan Laffey 'First Day of Fall' Global TV-Toronto Stuart Serediuk '24 Hours In Trauma: Ufe and Death' CFCN-Edmonton Peter Warren 'Season's In the Sun' CJOH-Ottawa

BEST COMMERCIAL CINEMATOGRAPHY Nicholas Allen-Woolle esc Novahlstex 'Sub Silence' Peter Hartmann esc Budweiser 'Panne de Courant' Maris Jansons esc Bellemar 'Essential Oils'

BEST STUDENT CINEMATOGRAPHY Robert Clegg/Reginald James 'Hoover' Sheridan College John Freeman 'l'homme de Bagdad' Concordia University John Freeman 'Quand le coeur attend .. : Concordia University

BEST TV DRAMA CINEMATOGRAPHY Manfred Guthe esc 'How Kissing Was Discovered' Anne of Avonlea Manfred Guthe esc 'Sea Ghost' Anne of Avonlea Andreas Poulsson esc 'Over the Edge' Mom P.l.

Sieve Mayhew, Medalllon/PFA presented lst and 2nd place awards to John Freeman of Concordia University (left) and 3rd place award to Robert Clegg of Sheridan College (right).

CSCNEWS 11

Nicholas Allen-Woolle esc 'smiles' as he receives award for best commercial.

Judging by the expressions in the follow­ing photographs everyone seemed to be having a good time. I did overhear a few comments though about our stills photographer, John Narvali. Seems that some of the DOPs were "envious" that John had :btlQ assistants working with him I

Opposite: Scott Munroe, Shirley Beatty, Dr. Anson Moorhouse and Ed Defay esc.

Opposite: Ed Defay esc Kenneth Post esc, and Patrick Carey esc were pre­sented with life membership by president Bob Bocklng esc.

12 MAY1991

CSCNEWS 13

EVERYTHING·s COMING UP DIGITAL!

by Lance Carlson

14

The noisy shotgun marriage of film and videotape of a few years back is still resounding throughout our in­dustry. However trere is an even more dramatic (r)evolutioo, started several years ago, quietly taking place which is drastically altering the way in which we produce and edit our programs. It ultimately will mean nothing less than tapeless or even filmless program production and you probably have a primitive prototype sitting beside you right now. That's it, the friendly household PC and some of its more sophisticated cousins are quickly becoming the control centre and creative blackboard of a wide range of innovative industry leaders as well as, at the lower end a mind boggling array of desktop video systems available to inhouse, corporate producers or for that matter even consumers.

The Mac based Avid non-linear video edit system has been on the market for almost two years and because it's pricey ( 600+) and still only offline, it has been limited to high volume users. 1bis in case anyone has missed it is the first video system to offer film style edits (but faster).

Video Systems Magazine is confidently project­ing that within two years at least four manufacturers will have available an under $20,000 disk based digital edit system which can be controlled by a PC (DOS or Mac) able to deliver a dub master of equivalent of one half a generation loss; most of the loss coming from the conver­sion (and decompression) from digital to the analog release master.

NEC is now offering their PC-VCR which is an S­VHSNHS deck with an RS-232 serial port and appropri­ate control circuitry meaning that any PC, Mac or DOS down to 512K RAM can operate two machines in a straight cut mode (or three in A-B Roll) and add in any graphics, animation, etc. that have been created on the PC. No other switchers, controllers black boxes etc. are re­quired. Also it can be used for archiving, interactive video display, desktop publishing/video etc. Software for offline editing is being developed now. JVC and Panasonic already offer similar but different PC controlled decks. By next year new software will enable these units or inevi­table competitors to do God knows what.

On the production front one of the more exciting products is the Panasonic AQ-20 three chip FIT digital signal processing camera offering an incredible array of image manipulation/enhancement and memory options. 1bis camera can be docked to S-VHS, Mil, Betacam and, when the decks are available later this year, their new half inch composite digital format, which has recently been endorsed by the BBC and the Barcelona Olympics. Re-

MAY1991

corders and edit systems are being of­fered but with orders for several hundred decks etc. for the aforementioned, Panasonic distributors are not making too many promises at present.

Matsushita (Panasonic) appears to be battling Sony with millions in re­search as well as marketing and making serious progress, particularly their half inch digital format being dubbed DX or D-3. They (andNHK) recently announced a 2/3 inch 1.3 million pixel CCD which will make possible a portable HDTV camera.

There was a rumor circulating at Vicom in April that Sony is planning to bring out a digital Betacam. Will this be component digital (a new D-1) and will the planned Hi8 composite complement or replace D-2? Sony reps are not con­firming or denying. Those fortunate enough to get to NAB in April are proba­bly brimming with new product news.

The introduction of the several new digital formats presents much less of a headache than existing formats did because digital information can be trans­lated with an appropriate interface with­out loss of quality. It would seem that a digital component (D-1) is hardly neces­.sary for routine program requirements except where extreme layering of effects are involved. Digital processing if not the signal itself will however be integral to HDTV (digital composite) and the best hope of achieving any compatibility of standards. For consumers the whole HDTV thing may be precluded by any of several of the Hi or super-NTSC systems now being fine tuned.

The products mentioned here are but a pixel or two on the tip of the whole imaging iceberg which we are all coming to grips with along with all the other chal­lenges we now face. We can be sure that advances in Silicon Valley which lead to improvements in computers now mean advances in film and television equip­ment or processes.

CSCNEWS

So in spite of day to day prob­lems of survival in this business we are going to see an exciting and mind bog­gling array of products and processes within the next year or two. This is due in part to the fact that the computer industry se-ems to have plateaued a bit and is now focusing on the video busi­ness.

Yet, there is an odd and ironic bottom line rarely addressed here; that the best video signal in the world on CRT or screen still can't come close to even 16mm projected along side, not to men­tion 35mm, 70mm or !MAX. So it should not be too surprising that there has been a substantial increase in 16mm production for television in the last three to four years.

While HDTV does improve de­tail, the film to tape transfer process introduces the so called film ' 'artifacts' ' and the problem that all the subtleties of film simply cannot be captured on tape and a monitor simply doesn't do justice to film. I confess that like many others, I have been impressed by the HDTV transfer to 35mm film, but I am con­vinced this has more to do with the fact that the end product is on film, because even HDTV still looks like video to me.

But the film/tape marriage may be precluded or bypassed when the elec­tro-wizards do their thing and come up with a 2-3000 line resolution system digitally recorded on lazerdiscs or smart­cards or ? and an appropriate method of displaying the signal.

The advertising people are al­ready combining 8-10,000 line images from/with 8x10 transparencies with stun­ning results and faster turnaround than ever possible before. As mentioned above with the computer genies focusing on video, in general, and virtual reality and other 3D imaging systems, in particular, the arrival of some spectacular break­throughs will not be that long in coming.

The real breakthrough in the near

15

future will be a digital system which preserves as much of the quality of the film original as possible, eliminates generation loss and allows for integra­tion of effects and computer graphics. The other breakthrough would be in an electronic display system which could deal with the subtleties and detail which pass through the camera lens initially. It is to Kodak's credit that they are putting some serious research efforts (along with Rank) into several of these problems.

The trick, as usual, for the rest of us is in knowing how to make all this progress work for us rather than against. More than ever I suspect, ''knowledge is power".

LANCE CARLSON

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At the CSC Awards: (from left to right) Standing: Bill Dwelly. Michael Harding. Todd Irving. Robert Moore. Holly Nattall. Peter Wiltshire. Wei Van. Paul Taylor. Adina Hecht. Seated: Chris Nethercoat. Joan Hutton esc. Paul Tolton. Brenda Sherwood.

1991 CSC CAMERA ASSISTANTS COURSE

The long awaited camera assis­tants course has come and gone. Through­out the year the Society receives numer­ous inquiries from persons interested in attending the course. And for good rea­son, it's the best ofits kind offered. It has all the key ingredients - "hands on" training, taught by professional assis­tants and assistants who have taken the course have gone on to very productive careers.

This year, Joan Hutton esc coor­dinated the program and from all ac­counts the students thoroughly enjoyed themselves although they were quite exhausted by the last day.

Course locations included PS

Productions Services, Arri Nagra, Wil­liam F. White, Kingsway (their new rental locationat258 WallaceAvenue),Panav­ision, Kodak and Medallion/PF A.

Special thanks to the assistants who came in to teach - Perry Hoffman, Kelly Mason, Cudah Andarawewa, John Holosko, Greg Farrow, James Crowe, Angelo Colavechio, Ernie Kestler, Robert Steko, Anton Van Roo yen, Rick Perotto, Robert MacDonald and Ryan McMaster. And what did some of the students say about the course?

Peter Wiltshire (416) 643-3475 "Intense, fantastic, five stars!"

I'm referring to the 1991 CSC Camera

16

Assistant Course. After just completing the course I find myself amazed at the mountains of infonnation I've learned. It's great that we were able to have hands on experience and visit many of the rental houses in Toronto. I want to thank the esc members and the volunteers who brought out their equipment and spent the time with all of us. A special thanks has to go out to Joan Hutton for coordi­nating a great week and to the esc for holding this course once a year.

Stephen O'Keefe (416) 962-1049 With fifteen fledgling camera

assistants, Joan Hutton and a line-up of guest pro's, we set out to conquer the

MAY1991

Helmet Cremer at Panavision for many years been a key instructor in the esc course.

Rick Perrotto (lett) instructing while Michael Harding, Wei Van and Holly Nattalllook on . .

pressures which hurl people into loading raw stock backwards. While about half of our instruction was purely technical, theotherhalfwas "hands-on", laced with "attitude". I could feel our collective uneasiness as working assistants warned of firing and "you'll never work in this town again" horrors. How to conduct yourself on set suddenly seemed very important. It became clear that camera assisting is a profession; not a sideline.

From Arri to Panavision, DOPs to repair staff, our class was given the whole Toronto film picture (literally with tours of Kodak and Medallion-PFA). Having moved to Toronto from Halifax, attending this course was a career neces­sity. Since there are virtually no home­grown 35mm productions in the Mar­itimes (or labs, studios, or film schools for that matter) the nine-days were a

dream. Having loaded Arri 16BL's for

three years, I'll never forget the pleasure of loading my first 35mm coaxial mag and the quiet movement of the Panaflex.

Brenda Sherwood (416) 694-5699 What comes to mind when

someone thinks of cameras? One usually associates it with Hollywood, glamour and excitement. But on a film set it's nothing like that. It's one of the hardest and challenging jobs that anyone could

CSCNEWS

experience. Recently I took the camera course

which was instructed by Joan Hutton. I found it to be a very thorough and de­tailed course. It gave an overall view of what a camera assistant does and went

into detail on the different cameras from Panavision to Arri to Aaton.

Very importantly, the CSC course prepares the students for what will be re­quired of them on the job.

SALES, SERVICE, RENTALS!

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Matte Box & Follow Focus Lighting Kits & Reflectors

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17

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CARROTTOP CORNER

In the last newsletter I wrote that David Niven and Cudah Andarawewa the camera assistants on "Drop Dead Gorgeous". Seems I got my facts slightly mixed up. David and Cudah are assisting Rene Ohashi esc on the film "To Catch a Killer". You may recall this picture had been stalled all winter. Ray Brounstein is operating and Maris Jansons esc has done some second unit photography. As for "Drop Dead Gorgeous" Brian Hebb esc is the OOP but I don't dare try to find out who the assistants are (I heard the last camera person got the boot ... whoever that was!).

Francois Protat is DOP for "Last Wish". Bob Saad is operator and Christo­pher Raucamp is the first assistant. This is a four week shoot and is a movie-of-the­week.

"Kids in the Hall" is on a hiatus for a while. They plan to start up again in August. David Makin has been the OOP for the esc series. .

Paul Sarossy has kept busy during this horrible recession. Paul will soon be finished "Grand Larceny" starring Jennifer Dale and Nick Mancuso. There are a few rumours circulating about personality con­flicts on the set. ItisCBC's sequel to "Love & Larceny" (shot by Bert Dunk esc, asc) which was shown on television a few years ago. I thought it was good conniving enter­tainment. Paul shot "The Adjuster" in Oc­tober which was invited to the Directors Fortnight in Cannes. Paul's next film is with Director Denny Archand and the film is called "View from Elsewhere".

I mentioned "The Cutting Edge" in the last issue. I should have asked the focus puller, Tony Guerin, who the director was. I recently discovered it was Paul Michael Glasen, well, you see, he was my heartthrob during my teenage years. I heard they were

18

shooting at a college in Newmarket, just 15 minutes from my house. Should have vis­ited the set, of course, just to take photos for the CSC Newsletter!

Ion-Dragos Sireteanu is about to begin his high budget (yes, you read this correctly H-1-G-H) production in Europe. Ion recently finished "Helena the Blues" an 80 minute feature film - an impression of a love story. Ion has been using anew style or "ORWO" film stock which is German, fac­tory mixed with Agfa stock. It is very warm in colour. He says this type of European stock is the cheapest available in the world. It seems every time I have a chat with Ion he always has a lot of European projects on the go!

Heard from Peter Wunstorf re­cently, one of our members in Edmonton. He is currently shooting a 35mm feature called "Solitaire" where he is DP/Operator on the Edmonton-based Francis Dam berger film. Meanwhile he is waiting for his first black and white feature to hit the festival trail this summer. The film is called "The Grocers Wife". Ian was DP and John Pozer was writer/director.

Colin Hoult assisted Mark Willis on the action feature "Tiger Claws". Ray Dumas was second assistant. Prior to that Colin worked on "Shurtless", a multi-cam­eradocumentary on Michael Shurtless (cast­ing agent who has "discovered" many stars) with Akira Nishihata and Ray Dumas.

And from Winnipeg .... upcoming productions include "Tracks of Glory" by Barren Films of Australia is being shot by Julian Penney. The technical crew is Aus­tralian. It is a six week shoot with four weeks in Australia and two weeks in Mani­toba in June. "Curse of the Viking Grave" is shooting in the Pincun area of Manitoba from May 21 through to June 24th. It is a made for tv 16mm movie DOPed by Ian Elkin with first assistant Glen Treilhard (see note from Glen). "Evvy" is a 16mm documentary on Evelyn Hart and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Shooting June 9 through 21 in Munich, Germany. July in Toyko and Winnipeg in November. Susan Trow is cinematographer and Holly Gregory the first assistant and occasional 2nd camera. "Careful", a 16mm feature by Guy Madden

MAY1991

is starting principle photography on July 16th. The camera depart­ment is headed by Guy Madden, Mike Marshall and Gerry Turchyn.

Christopher Hayward recently assisted cameraman Marty Snyderman on a 3-day documentary shoot called "Shark Shoot­ers". Thomas Horton Associates are producing 16 episodes in this series. The frrst one was on Jack McKenney an underwater cine­matographer from LA.

Tim Merkel and I spent some days working together a few weeks ago on a feature shot in Techniscope. The lenses seemed to weigh a couple of pounds each. It was a very old camera package from Rome, Italy. Two more shooting days were needed and as Tim was unavailable, I was upgraded to OOP/Operator. I brought Carolyn Wong in as my assistant. The frrst day as operator was fun and amusing, despite the early call times and horribly unorganized, unprofessional production company. We were not allowed to light any scenes (daytime of course). We shot at locations without permits and actors and drivers had trouble

finding locations. Most of the days' hours being wasted as a result of poor communication and poor translations. Two days of camera op­erating with no rehearsals in this environment was enough for me! It was a good experience though. The long time focus pullers who get into camera operating, must find it difficult to jump back and forth to the focus pullers' duties after the excitement behind the moving camera!

For the CSC members reading this, yes this is "that Produc­tion" that has had 37 camera operators (now 38) camera operators leave, that long time shooting production!

Until the next issue, Lori Longstaff

POSTCARD FROM GLEN TREILRARD ... . Hi Lori,

Just a note to touch base with the Toronto end of the CSC. I'm in Winnipeg working on an Atlantis/Credo Group co-production of Farley Mowat's ''Curse of the Viking Grave'', a movie-of-the-week to

be shot on location in northern Manitoba. The DOP is Ian Elkin (Winnipeg), second assistant is Brian Sand­ers (Winnipeg) and Charles Konowal (Winnipeg) is 2nd unit DOP. It's a period film (1930' s)for Disney. I shot the camera tests in Winnipeg, dropped them off at the production office and got on a bus for Regina with my 1 0-speed bike. It took seven hours to get there and I pedalled back in 44 1/2 hours and beat the camera tests backfrom Toronto. (I covered the last 421 kilometers in 22112 hours). I've got a couple of days to recuperate and then it's off to feed the black flies and mosquitoes. Hope things have picked up in Toronto. Take Care, Glen Treilhard

Peter Wunstorf is currently DP/Operator on 35mm feature 'Solitaire'

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CSCNEWS 19

MaHhew Kerr Stringer bom to Carol & Richard on April 20th.

UPCOMING EVENTS

TilE ACADEMY OF CANADIAN CINEMA AND TELEVISION is publishing the 1991-1992 edition of Who's Who. If you have at least one on-screen credit, they want you in their book. If you haven't already received a form from the Academy you can write or fax them at 653 Yonge Street, 2nd Floor, Toronto, Ontario M4Y 1Z9. Fax (416) 967-3351.

FLEAMARKET ... please call Sammy at (416) 636-6113 if you are interested in selling equip­ment

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