President’s Blog – December 2010

Greetings ACS colleagues. This report is coming to you from Budapest, where I’m attending, along with Peter James ACS ASC and Laszlo Baranyai ACS HSC, the very first World Cinematography Conference. This event is being held under the auspices of the Hungarian Society of Cinematographers (HSC) and IMAGO.

I have written a detailed report which can be seen in the upcoming issue of AC Magazine or on the ACS web site. Needless to say it was a very informative conference attended by 19 other countries and over 40 delegates, including legendary cinematographers, Billy Williams OBE BSC and Vilmos Zsigmond ASC HSC.

We had the good fortune to visit Raleigh Studios at the time that Dean Semler was there shooting and we had a great chin wag outside Stage 5. It’s always great to catch up with Dean as his enthusiasm is infectious! Danny Ruhlmann was also in Budapest shooting a film called “The Raven”. We had the opportunity to enjoy some goulash and a quiet cold one with Danny as well.

Congratulations to all at the Hungarian Society and thank you for your kindness and your hospitality. Thanks also to both Peter James and Laszlo Baranyai for their support and generosity of spirit. It meant a great deal to have them both in Budapest for this important event. Thanks also to Screen NSW for assisting the Society with funds enabling us to attend this inaugural conference and to the Producers of “Noise” and “Mao’s Last Dancer” for allowing us to screen both films.

World Cinematography Conference
Laszlo Baranyai ACS HSC Lajos Koltai HSC ASC Dean Semler OAM ACS ASC Mark Goelnicht, Peter James ACS ASC, Ron Johanson ACS
Our 2010 Awards season finished in the first week of December with the Victorian/Tasmanian awards. I was fortunate enough to attend all but the NSW/ACT awards. Congratulations to all those who entered and to those who were recipients of either Gold, Silver or Bronze awards. In some categories, entry numbers were down, but the quality of all entries was outstanding and made the respective judging panels jobs quite difficult. To all the State and Territory committees I congratulate and thank you on behalf of the members for your hard work and your dedication, not only at Awards time, but all year round.

A reminder to all our members of the generous offers made by both Frame Set & Match and Gundog Estate Wines. Both these companies are offering generous incentives that will benefit the Society and you, the members.

Frame Set & Match, for ACS members who bring them their rushes and grading, will donate $200 per project to the national HQ, until the end of December. The work can be in the form of either film or data originated material.

Thanks to Steve Dunn at FSM and our very own Geoff Burton ACS at Gundog Estate for their support.

This will be the final E News for this year, so I wanted to take the opportunity to wish each and every one of you a safe and happy Christmas with your families and friends. Thank you all for your support of the Society and I look forward to next year with great optimism and enthusiasm.

Happy Christmas!

Until next time…
Ron Johanson ACS
National President