Howard Rubie ACS (1938 – 2011) Inducted into ACS Hall of Fame – 2010
Howard was a foundation member of the ACS when it was first formed in 1958 with membership number 11, and accredited with the letters ACS in 1963. He was made a Life member of the Society in the year 2010.
He first became interested in photography at the age of 14 while attending Bondi Junior Technical High School. His first camera was a Krol Bencine, a brand long since vanished, he says he was hooked after the first click of the shutter. Upon leaving school he managed to get a start at Kingcroft Studios with Jack Gardiner as his mentor. There he got to learn about the shooting, scripting, editing and in fact the entire process of making documentary films.
In 1953 upon hearing there was a vacancy for a camera assistant at Cinesound he promptly applied for the job and got it. The chief cameraman was Ron Horner, with well cameramen Bede Whiteman, Lloyd Shiels, Bob Wright and Keith Loone in support. Howard learnt much from these guys and over the next few years was responsible for the shooting of many top newsreel stories. Then in 1956 TV came along and new opportunities arose for him.
Bede Whiteman became a director and gave Howard the opportunity to shoot some of his work; he also got further opportunities to hone his skills by shooting for other well-known Cinesound directors Bill Carty and Eric Fullilove.
Some years later he was offered a job at Ajax Studios as a cameraman and left Cinesound, but soon developed a keen interest in directing and gradually moved into that role full time.
He then directed many TV commercials and documentaries, as well as a number of well known television series such as Boney, Spyforce, Shannon’s Mob, Search for Treasure Island, plus many others.
Unfortunately Howard passed away at Castlecrag Private Hospital on June 18, 2011.
