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In the News
Provided by Michael Wale
Michael Wale csc Wins Leo Award
Michael Wale csc won the Canadian Leo Award for Best Cinematography: Dramatic Series for his work on the SyFy series Continuum. The Celebration Awards Ceremony took place in the spring at the Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver. Wale won for his work on the Continuum episode “Second Guessed.”
In other member news, the feature film Louis Cyr, shot by Nicolas Bolduc csc, was presented with Telefilm Canada’s annual Guichet d’Or Award in June. The award is given to the Canadian French-language film with highest domestic earnings in the past year. Louis Cyr generated more than $4.2 million nationally at the box office in 2013.
Also, Michael Jari Davidson lensed the independent feature film Save Yourself over the summer, shooting in the anamorphic format.
Dennis Berardi, founder of Mr. X and now the company’s global managing director.
Provided by Mr. X Inc.
Technicolor To Acquire VFX Studio Mr. X Inc.
Technicolor in June announced it had reached an agreement to acquire visual effects company Mr. X. The effects company joins Technicolor’s Production Services division, which includes Academy Award-winning MPC (The Moving Picture Company). MPC will continue to address leading projects for both its studio and advertising clients, while Mr. X will focus on high-concept television production, genre features and international film co-productions. Mr. X and its clients will also be able to access Technicolor’s postproduction portfolio, proven operational excellence and leading technology solutions. Mr. X will operate as Technicolor’s VFX brand for television and become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Technicolor. Mr. X’s co-founder and president, Dennis Berardi, will become global managing director of Mr. X reporting to Tim Sarnoff, president of Production Services for Technicolor. The acquisition remains subject to approval by the government of Canada’s Department of Canadian Heritage.
The SIM Group Merges with Hollywood’s Chainsaw
The SIM Group this summer announced it had reached an agreement in principle to merge with Hollywood-based Chainsaw. The merger would see SIM expand its post offerings in the Los Angeles market through Chainsaw’s services. Upon completion of the merger Chainsaw will continue to operate under its current name as a unit of The SIM Group
Meanwhile, the SIM Group also announced the promotion of Ann DeGuire to the newly-created post of president, Camera Division. Previously general manager of SIM Digital, Atlanta, DeGuire will oversee camera operations and engineering for all SIM locations, which include offices in Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver, Atlanta, Halifax and Beijing.
In other news, Peter Pearson and Rob Sim were selected to receive two special awards from the Directors Guild of Canada to recognize their careers. Pearson will receive the Don Haldane Distinguished Service Award – which is presented to a DGC member to recognize outstanding service to the membership of the guild – while Sim will be this year’s recipient of the DGC Honourary Life Member Award, which is given in recognition of an individual’s outstanding contribution to the industry that has also had a positive impact on the DGC and its members. Sim co-founded Sim Digital (then known as Sim Video) in 1982, and also received the Bill Hilson Award from the Canadian Society of Cinematographers in 2011.The two special awards will be presented during the 2014 edition of the DGC Awards Gala on October 25 at The Carlu in Toronto.
American Society of Cinematographers Votes in New Officers; Richard Crudo Re-elected President
The Board of Governors of the American Society of Cinematographers held its annual election to appoint its new slate of officers. Richard Crudo csc, ASC will serve as president, along with Vice Presidents Owen Roizman, Kees Van Oostrum and Lowell Peterson; Treasurer Matthew Leonetti; Secretary Fred Goodich; and Sergeant-at-Arms Isidore Mankofsky. This is Crudo’s fifth term as president. In addition to last year, he served from 2003 through 2005.
The members of the Board, elected in May by the organization’s active membership, include: John Bailey, Bill Bennett, Curtis Clark, Dean Cundey, George Spiro Dibie, Richard Edlund, Michael Goi, Matthew Leonetti, Stephen Lighthill, Daryn Okada, Michael O’ Shea, Lowell Peterson, Rodney Taylor, Kees van Oostrum, and Haskell Wexler. Alternate Board members consist of Isidore Mankofsky, Karl Walter Lindenlaub, Robert Primes, Steven Fierberg and Kenneth Zunder.
The ASC also appointed Stephen Pizzello to serve as editor-in-chief and publisher of its flagship Richard Crudo csc, asc magazine American Cinematographer. Other editorial appointments include the promotions of Jon Witmer to managing editor, and Rachael Bosley to managing director of the ASC’s website (theasc.com) and social media channels. Andrew Fish has been brought on to serve as associate editor, and Kelly Brinker is the magazine’s new photo editor. The ASC Board promoted Pizzello from his previous position as executive editor, a title he held for 19 years. William F. White this spring announced the opening of a Sudbury office as part of a new partnership for Northern Ontario. The new Whites’ office will be housed within the Northern Ontario Film Studios facility, a former ice rink.
William F. White Opens Sudbury Office; Calgary To Construct Film Studio
Local industry professionals will also have access to Whites’ educational seminars and workshops.
Meanwhile, Calgary Economic Development announced it has secured land to begin construction on the Calgary Film Centre, which will be built on 8.35 acres of land located at 5750 76 Avenue S.E. The Centre is expected to open in the fall of 2015, and the total projected cost is approximately $22.8 million. The Centre will feature 50,000 square feet of purpose-built sound stages, and William F. White will be the anchor tenant.
Sony Pictures Imageworks Relocates Head Office to Vancouver
Visual effects and digital character animation company Sony Pictures Imageworks announced this summer it is relocating its headquarters to Vancouver. The company is moving into a new, state-of-the-art facility, capable of accommodating up to 700 employees, which will be the largest footprint for a visual effects company in the city. The Vancouver team will including Guardians of the Galaxy (Disney/Marvel), Pixels (Columbia Pictures), Angry Birds movie (Rovio), Hotel Transylvania 2 (Sony Pictures Animation) and the untitled
lead Sony Pictures Imageworks’ current and future projects,
Smurfs movie (Sony Pictures Animation). Sony Pictures Imageworks’ new 74,000-square-foot production headquarters will be located at the Pacific Centre in downtown Vancouver.
Australian Cinematographers Society Introduces Technical Achievement Award in Honour of Miller Tripods Founder
Miller Camera Support Equipment announced this summer that the Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) recently partnered with the company to create a new industry award for the ACS National Awards for Cinematography. The Bob Miller – ACS Technical & Innovation Achievement
Archival photograph featuring fluid head inventor Bob Miller and Movietone News crew, 1946.
This photograph supplied from the Ron Windon ACS collection on behalf of the Australian Cinematographers Society. Award, developed in honour and memory of fluid head inventor Bob Miller, will come with $1,000 cash, a $2,000 Miller product prize and a framed certificate. The winner will also have his or her name engraved onto one of Miller’s LP ’54 Classic tripods, which will reside permanently on display at the ACS National Headquarters in Sydney, Australia. In honor of its 60th anniversary, Miller has only produced 40 of these LP ’54 Classic tripods for worldwide distribution through donation. The LP ‘54s were built by hand, as they were when first introduced, from remaining components left after the last production run of the Light Professional (LP). The Bob Miller – ACS Technical & Innovation Achievement Award will be presented to an industry pioneer for the first time at the 2015 ACS National Awards for Cinematography in Hobart, Australia.
Meanwhile, Miller also announced that it was introducing its Air Tripod System range, which includes the Air Alloy System (3001) and Air Carbon Fibre System (3005), to the U.S. market. Each system consists of an Air Fluid Head, offering authentic Miller fluid head pan and tilt technology, and a variant of the Solo 75 2-Stage Tripod. The Air Fluid Head, composed of magnesium alloy housing and precision components, comes with two positions of selectable counterbalance and a dual pan handle option. Both systems have the ability to support payloads ranging from 5.5 pounds to 11 pounds.
Renowned German-born Canadian filmmaker and cinematographer Wolf Koenig died on June 26 at the age of 86. Koenig spent 47 years at the National Film Board and worked on documentaries, animation and narrative work. His notable credits as co-director include the documentaries City of Gold (1957), The Days Before Christmas (1958), Stravinsky (1965), Glenn Gould – Off the Record (1959), and Lonely Boy (1962). He lensed Norman McLaren’s Oscar-winning 1952 short, Neighbours, which employed innovative stop-motion photography. Koenig also designed the animation for Colin Low’s The Romance of Transportation in Canada (1953), which won an award in Cannes, and he was also the cinematographer for Corral (1954), Low’s first documentary, according to the NFB. Koenig was one of the main contributors to the Board’s Candid Eye series, along with Terence Macartney-Filgate, Roman Kroitor and Tom Daly. Koenig retired from the NFB in 1995. He was born in Dresden, Germany, on Oct. 17, 1927, and his family settled in Galt (later Cambridge), Ont., in 1937. He is survived by his sister Rachel Byck, his brother Joe Koenig, and his nieces Judy, Sarah, Susan, Anne, Nina and Debbie.
