5 minute read
The Masters
2017 is not only the CSC’s 60 th anniversary, it also marks 30 years of recognizing extraordinary excellence through the CSC’s Masters Award. This special honour is conferred upon cinematographers who have transcended from just practicing their craft into leaders of their craft by influencing the cinematic art form through their exceptional creativity, technical skills and ingenuity. Originally called the Kodak New Century Award, it was renamed the Masters Award in 2014 to reflect industry changes brought about by the digital age.
In celebration of the CSC’s 60 th anniversary, Canadian Cinematographer is presenting a 10-part series on the exceptional cinematographers who have received the Masters Award. This is part two.
By Guido Kondruss
Robert Bocking csc 1990
Right from the beginning, nature loomed large for Robert Bocking csc. Born in 1936 in Port Arthur, Ontario (which is now Thunder Bay), and into a family who were trappers and hunters, Bocking was immersed in the Canadian wilderness from an early age. His interest in images was stimulated by his Grade 7 teacher who introduced Bocking to the world of photography. As a teenager, Bocking had an interest in motion picture making, but with no film schools in Canada at the time, he enrolled in the Photographic Arts program at Toronto’s Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, where he learned the nuances of lighting, and specialized in commercial photography.
After graduating in 1958, Bocking found himself back in Port Arthur, working at a photofinishing plant. With his first paycheques, Bocking bought his very first motion picture camera, a Bolex RX-5, and began learning cinematography on his own. It was when the legendary wildlife cinematographer and sound recordist Dan Gibson csc hired Bocking to film nature scenes in surrounding provincial parks that he found himself back in the woods, in a new profession.
While Bocking also shot commercials and industrial films during his career, it was his nature cinematography that brought him many accolades and to the attention of the National Geographic Society where he produced and shot 10 awardwinning films on natural history. These films were shown to tens of thousands of students in classrooms throughout the United States and Canada. Whether shooting from a helicopter flying at a heart-stopping 45-degree angle to capture the splendour and awe of Virginia Falls on the South Nahanni River, or waiting patiently in a forest blind to film that perfect wildlife moment, Bocking’s cinematography simply didn’t record nature, it educated viewers.
Bocking has also been honoured with the CSC’s Bill Hilson Award for “outstanding service contributing to the development of the motion picture industry.” Bocking is retired from active filmmaking, living in Toronto.
Kenneth Post csc (1922-2002) 1991
Ken Post csc was born on a frigid January day in 1922 in Windsor, Ontario. The coldness of that day seemed to foreshadow his exploits as “Canada’s Arctic Cinematographer” almost four decades later. As a young man, Post worked for the Sentinel Review in Woodstock, covering daily news as cub reporter and photographer. As war clouds spread over Europe, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940, training in its photographic unit to maintain cameras on aircraft to record mission results. He was attached to the legendary RCAF 407 “Demon” Squadron as part of Britain’s Coastal Command and later to Wellington bombers in North Africa. It was here, in the Tunisian desert, that Post shot his first moving images with a Bell and Howell 70DR. After the war, Post opened his own photo studio in Woodstock, photographing everything from weddings to livestock, but it was not until 1955 that he was once again involved with moving pictures, shooting newsreel footage for a London, Ontario, TV station, eventually gravitating to Toronto. His newsreel speed, coupled with his keenly visual eye and journalistic attention to detail quickly established Post as a top-flight documentary cinematographer and director. In 1959, he made his first trip to the Canadian Arctic, igniting his passion for the north and its people. In the ensuing two decades, Post travelled 17 more times to the far north, solidifying his reputation as an expert in extreme cold weather cinematography. Mostly lauded for his documentary work, Post also ventured into features and TV movies, and was the DP on TVOntario’s Emmy-winning drama Inside/Out. Post’s cold weather skills were much in demand for the Arctic drama The White Dawn and for the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, where he was perilously perched high on a mountain ledge on Baffin Island, contributing stunning visuals for the movie’s infamous ski chase scene.
Manfred Guthe csc 1992
For Manfred Guthe csc, it was always about the lighting. Born near Frankfurt, Germany, in 1946, Guthe immigrated with his parents to Canada when he was 11 years old, settling in Midland, Ontario. While in high school, Guthe became involved with theatrical lighting design. He was spellbound with how lighting could shape the mood and the story of a stage play. Guthe became a lighting director in the Ontario Summer Stock Theatre during the early 1960s, and while he loved his work, making a living was a different story. In 1965, Guthe was hired by the CBC to do television lighting. Occasionally he worked in their film department and discovered that the director of photography controlled the lights. That’s where Guthe wanted to head. After three years, he left the CBC and began working his way through the ranks of the film industry from camera assistant to camera operator and eventually to his goal of DP. Although Guthe started in documentaries, he quickly moved into theatrical features and television series that grabbed his creative interests. During his career, Guthe was the DP of dozens of theatrical films and television series. His filmography includes the features Oddballs (1984), Too Outrageous! (1987), and The Midday Sun (1989). For television, he was the DP on the popular series Road to Avonlea (1990- 1996) for which he won a CSC Best Cinematography award; North of Sixty (1993), and the award-winning movie of the week Butterbox Babies (1995). Guthe says the most important aspect of being a cinematographer is to drive the visual story by creating a film’s look of which lighting is an intrinsic element. It is an approach that has garnered Guthe several award nominations and wins, including the 1977 Best Cinematography Award from the New York Film Festival. Guthe divides his time between Toronto and San Miguel De Allende, Mexico, where he’s published several photo books on Mexican architecture and street life.
