As a young camera assistant working in Brisbane, David Gribble knew that to further his career in the film industry Sydney was the place to be, so he decided to up stumps and made the move.
Not long after arriving in the “big smoke” David was fortunate to secure a job with local production company Supreme Sound Studios. Supreme was an established studio and as was normal in those days it employed, on a full-time basis, all the technicians required to mount their productions. This included cinematographers, many of whom were to go on and make very successful careers in Australia and internationally. It was at Supreme that David met and worked with contemporaries, Peter James and Russell Boyd – they became lifelong friends.
The majority of the work at Supreme was TV commercials, mostly shot in black and white, but David was keen to work on drama productions. His opportunity came when Supreme was involved with a feature film called Journey Out of Darkness which was shot in and around Alice Springs and Ayers Rock. David was somewhat thrown in the deep end having to wear both Clapper Loader and Focus Puller hats and keeping “sharps” wasn’t easy using an NC Mitchell camera but he was off and running in the drama world.
Not long after his outback experience David was offered work on the TV series Skippy where he eventually became the A camera operator. Skippy was a great training ground for David and many others. His work on the series, in time, led to him being offered jobs as a cinematographer and some of his early work as DP included the cult TV series Lost Islands and many local Australian feature films – FJ Holden, Running on Empty, Monkey Grip and Fast Talking.
These films attracted the interest of “Hollywood” and David’s next port of call, the USA, saw him shoot Cadillac Man with Robin Williams and director Roger Donaldson), Tap, Fires Within, Nowhere to Run, Chill Factor and many others. He also made a couple of stopovers in New Zealand for Crooked Earth and much acclaimed The World’s Fastest Indian (once again with Roger Donaldson). With a long standing relationship with director Robert Harmon, David travelled to Nova Scotia six times to shoot TV movies in the Tom Selleck, Jesse Stone franchise.
Always very highly regarded in the TV commercial area David has shot many and varied campaigns both locally and internationally especially in New Zealand and Asia.
It is with pleasure that the Australian Cinematographers Society welcomes David Gribble ACS into the ACS Hall of Fame.
