2010 CSC AGM Reports

THE 2010 AGM EXECUTIVE REPORTS

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Welcome to the CSC annual general meeting for 2010. First, as is customary, let us take a moment to remember colleagues who passed away during the last year. Sadly, we lost four groundbreaking members from our community in 2010. Derek Vanlint csc passed away at age 78 last February 23 in Toronto after a short illness. Full-life member Kenneth R. Davey csc died at the age of 94 on May 7 in Victoria B.C. Doug Dales, the founder and head of PS Production Services, died on December 3 in Toronto at the age of 60 and founding CSC member Don Wilder csc passed away December 8 in Abbotsford B.C. at the age of 84.

I would also like to make mention the regrettable demise of a Canadian film and television institution. A victim of changing times and the economy, service house Precision Camera closed its doors in December after 31 years. Not only was Precision a pillar of our professional community, it was also a good friend and sponsor of the CSC. But with every dark cloud there is a silver lining, and most of Precision’s employees have migrated to other jobs in our industry.

For our industry, 2010 was neither a bad year nor a stellar year. We seem to be in a holding pattern, with a modest increase of one per cent for the overall net earnings for the Canadian film and television industry. In the middle of this, the CSC is still alive and kicking. The 2010 CSC Awards Gala at the Sheraton Centre was a glowing success with its women in film and television theme and our tribute Canada’s military cinematographers. We’ll hear more about that later from Bob Bocking, our awards chair. Beyond our society, CSC members have been recognized for their work in the most stellar ways, by sweeping the 2010 Geminis, winning Genie Awards and a host of other national and international tributes. There are simply too many to mention here.

I would, nevertheless, like to make a special mention the film Northern Lights, directed, produced and shot by Antonio Galloro csc. It was nominated for best documentary at the Marbella Film Festival in Spain and won best international documentary at the 2010 New York International Independent Film & Video Festival. Northern Lights is a feature-length documentary film that celebrates the spirit and success of Canadian cinematography and the CSC. Hearty congratulations to all CSC members for their outstanding wins and nominations.

A milestone of sorts was achieved with the move of William F. White and the CSC clubhouse. For the past four years, White’s has generously provided space for our clubhouse. So when they bought a new building just down the road and asked us to come along, we moved. The CSC clubhouse is an integral part of our Society and is for the exclusive use of our membership for

In closing, I would like to thank all the members of the executive and advisory board for their dedication to the CSC, our executive director Susan Saranchuk, who always seems to pull a rabbit out of a hat when all else fails, Karen Longland whose bookkeeping and administration helps keep the CSC moving and our editor Wyndham Wise for his hard work and diligence producing Canadian Cinematographer each month.

Joan Hutton csc, president

VICE-PRESIDENT’S REPORT

2010 has been a year filled with exciting new technology. Our sponsors announced many new equipment releases during the year to showcase their equipment and these meetings were generally well attended. There were a total of 25 meetings in 2010 at the following CSC Sponsor locations: Panasonic, Sim Video, Screen Industries Research and Training Centre, (SIRT), Sheridan College, Pinewood Toronto Studios, Technicolor, Vistek ProFusion 2010, Kodak, Sony, Creative Post, Wm. F. White & CSC Screenings (Great Cinematography in Revue) (Dark Country in 3D).

George Willis csc, sasc, vice-president

EDUCATION REPORT

The enormously successful CSC 3D Workshop (held February 5–8, 2010) took place at Pinewood Studios, Creative Post and the AMC theatre at Dundas Square, Toronto. The keynote speaker was Geoff Boyle FBKS, whose 3D film Dark Country was screened. There were 32 participants who hailed from Canada, the United States, Hong Kong, Malaysia and England. The cinematographers and camera assistants got hands-on experience, and the observers participated in the lecture portions of the workshop on day one. The cinematographers that were not members of the CSC paid $2,500; CSC and IATSE members paid $2,000 to attend. Camera assistants that were not members of the CSC paid $950; CSC and IATSE members paid $760. Observers that were not members of the CSC paid $1,200; CSC and IATSE members paid $900. The workshop generated a healthy profit for the CSC.

The CSC Lighting Workshop was held May 15 and 16 at William F. White. Non-members of the CSC paid $325, while CSC members paid $225. The instructors were Ernie Kestler and George Wilis csc, sasc. Michael Jari Davidson was there lending a hand with the lighting set-ups. Gaffer Robert McAdam was helping everyone with their lighting needs, be they fixtures or questions. There were 15 particiapnts: Dominic Bisson, Tyson Burger, Glendon Davis, Cadil Dogan, Ilana Gutman, Aaron Hucker, Goh Iromoto, Alan Lukatela, Robert Macdonald, Jake Morris, Adam Nicholson, Craig Pew, Brian Rose, Steve Thorpe

and Renaldo Tragnone. The workshop was made possible thanks to the generous contribution of Cinequip, DSA: Design Sets Assembly, Fujifilm Canada, Image Media Farm, Kodak Canada, Lee Filters Canada, Rosco Canada and William F. White. Ernie Kestler, education chair

AWARDS REPORT

The 2010 CSC Awards Night was held Saturday, March 27 at the Osgoode Ballroom at the Sheraton Centre Hotel in Toronto. The Gala event was attended by 296 members, sponsors and friends, and the evening was hosted by Heather Allin, actor and president of ACTRA-Toronto.

All decisions regarding the awards are made by the awards committee: Robert Bocking, chair, Bert Dunk csc, George Hosek csc, John Hodgson and Susan Saranchuk. There were 141 entries. The juries were held in Toronto at Deluxe. The juries were chaired by Robert Bocking. All the categories were judged at Deluxe. John Hodgson produced and edited the Awards Gala show tape with David Oliver at Soho Post and Graphics.

Bob Bocking csc, awards chair

PUBLICITY REPORT

One of the best publicity vehicles available to the CSC is our website, at csc.ca. Our entire membership listings, our executive, the CSC history, Canadian Cinematographer, demo reels, award winners and nominees, education courses, plus any and all information or announcements pertaining to the CSC can be found there. It’s essentially our organization’s window to the world.

As CSC publicity chair, my main focus has always centered on our website. In 2010, the site performed admirably with little or no problem. Though we have tweaked and improved certain aspects, it remains essentially the same as 2009. The traffic through our website has remained steady and at the high end of our estimates from last year. It generated nearly 1,900,000 successful requests in 2010, and that averages out to over 156,000 requests each month, or an average 5,200 successful requests each and every day.

We had hoped that most of our full and associate members would subscribe to CSC Reels for their demos; however, the numbers, while they have gone up from 29 to 35, have fallen short of our expectations, even with offering the service for free. On the other hand, 45 members have direct links from our website to their demo reels on other websites. In total, 171 members have direct links from their CSC listing to their personal websites, which usually contain their demo reels. I would like to remind CSC members that, as per your request, connection to your reel on our CSC Reels feature was updated to direct access by typing csc. ca/your last name.

A website initiative that was started in 2010 is the taping of CSC members on their thoughts about cinematography, the film and television industry and projects on which they are working or have worked in the past. Several CSC members such as Antonio Galloro csc and Kim Derko csc have already been interviewed. The raw tapes will be edited and then added to our site. The first edited tapes will be appearing, hopefully, by the middle of 2011.

Nikos Evdemon csc, publicity chair

TREASURER’S REPORT

Even in the midst of lingering difficulties for the national and global economies, the CSC has made significant progress this year towards regaining financial health. As an organization, we’re definitely not free from concerns, since we still have an accumulated deficit at the end of 2010. Each of our activities is being consciously reviewed to ensure that we are considering it within the current environment, rather than any past formula.

As Treasurer, I am pleased that all CSC activities are being managed in such a way that our finances have benefitted this year. The other executive members devoted a great deal of time and expertise to making these activities and other services attractive to current and new members; I congratulate and thank them all. From my financial viewpoint, I’d personally like to highlight Carolyn Wong who persuaded a great many members and companies to remit amounts that they owed to the CSC for too long.

Due to all this vigilance, we managed to reduce the accumulated deficit at the end of 2010, so that is now just under $2,000. This praiseworthy result was achieved through extraordinary efforts and dedication in hard times, especially by our executive director Susan Saranchuk and the team that she coordinates. How she managed to move and improve the Clubhouse without a major expenditure is beyond comprehension. Finally, I am proposing a modest increase in fees for the year 2012, convinced that the CSC will still remain the best value for any similar professional society.

Joe Sunday phd, CSC treasurer

*These reports have been edited for length to fit the page.

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