AUSSIE RULES

By Natasha Block Hicks

We live like vagabonds,” muses Jason Ellson SOC as he contemplates the nomadic lifestyle that has become a feature of his career as a top Hollywood camera operator. For half a year, he has been half a planet away from the place he now calls home.

I’m speaking to him in New Zealand via Zoom the day after wrapping on Apple mini-series Chief Of War. Within one week, he and his gear must be in his native Australia, ready to start shooting on Mortal Kombat 2. It’s going to be a while before he can fly back to his family in Los Angeles.

Ellson grew up in Adelaide, South Australia. His father, a professional photographer, TV cameraman and early colleague of Oscar-winning Australian cinematographer Dean Semler AM ACS ASC, was an inspiring figure to the youngster. Ellson’s high school supported this passion with a strong photography course and darkroom, allowing him to “dive deep” into image composition and utilising the

Connections are how this business works

camera as a tool for conveying narrative.

Ellson describes early-90s Adelaide as being “a small market” when it came to movie production, but he gained a position at the local TV news station and would borrow the camera during his lunchbreaks to shoot little shorts in the park. He says he “fell in love” with narrative filmmaking during brief internships on visiting productions such as The New Adventures Of Black Beauty (1992-1993, DP David Foreman

ACS). Knowing that Semler had come from a similar background as himself steeled Ellson to pursue his ambition of a career in cinema regardless of the limited opportunities locally.

Ellson travelled to Singapore and developed his skills in long-form news and documentaries working for a production company that handled Southeast Asian contracts for worldwide corporations such as the BBC and NBC. A direct conduit to the USA opened when the company boss invested in a Steadicam rig, and sent Ellson to Rockport, Maine to undertake the Paul Taylor Steadicam Workshop. At the turn of the new century, as an accredited Steadicam operator, Ellson moved permanently to Los Angeles.

Operator Andrew Rowlands SOC was an influential early mentor for Ellson. “Andrew was so helpful technically,” recalls Ellson, “he also helped me navigate the business side of the industry.”

On one Ellson’s first jobs – a commercial shot by Bill Pope ASC, passed over to him by Rowlands – Ellson describes himself as “a hot mess”. Auspiciously, despite being a 5’5” rookie operator being required to track a giant through a carnival scene, all went well. Shortly afterwards, through his Semler connection, Ellson was introduced to second unit director Simon Crane, who would become his first collaborator of note in the narrative field.

“We just clicked,” Ellson reveals. Crane took Ellson on to the second units of Salt (2010, dir. Phillip Noyce, DP Robert Elswit ASC), then World War Z (2013, dir. Marc Forster, DP Ben Seresin BSC ASC). When he helmed a US Marines commercial, Crane bought Ellson along to operate under cinematographer Barry Peterson. Any concerns Ellson may have had that he was ‘forced’ on Peterson were allayed when the Canadian

DP offered him a job soon afterwards.

“Those connections are how this business works,” Ellson comments candidly. Ellson went on to operate B-camera and Steadicam for Peterson on numerous projects, including 21 Jump Street (2012, dirs. Phil Lord & Christopher Miller), We’re The Millers (2013, dir. Rawson Marshall Thurber) and the pilot episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013, dirs. Lord & Miller). Peterson’s regular A-camera operator, Daniel C. Gold SOC, became another important mentor to Ellson.

“I was just like a sponge,” Ellson enthuses, “Danny taught me everything about becoming an A-camera operator. His craft, his demeanour on-set: he just encapsulated the role on so many levels.”

Speaking from his own experiences, Ellson says, “As an A-camera operator, you are constantly trying to solve problems by being as creative as you can. You’re channelling the director and DP’s vision, so you want to know that script intimately. If you feel strongly about something, you bring it up. It might not be the right thing, but it may trigger something else and send you all down this amazing, creative path.”

Although Ellson flew into the industry on the Steadicam magic carpet, he advocates “choosing the right tool to execute the shot. That could be handheld, it could be Steadicam, crane, dolly or static. I love the freedom and physicality of Steadicam. It’s a great tool to tell a story. But there are top operators who don’t do Steadicam. It’s more important to bring a well-rounded set of tools with you and be somebody that people want to hang out with for 16 hours a day!”

Ellson is careful to point out that one of a camera operator’s “greatest assets” is not a piece of kit at all.

“The operators’ execution of a shot is intimately married to the dolly grip,” he elucidates, “it’s a team process. A dolly grip needs to be empowered to create and improvise. They are the unsung heroes.”

Around the point that Ellson’s career really started to gather steam, he teamed-up with fellow Australian, DP Mandy Walker AM ACS ASC, on the ABC period pilot Gilded Lilys (2013, dir. Brian Kirk). Their subsequent multi-picture collaboration became like a hardy vine, weaving through Ellson’s resumé to the present day.

“Mandy is a really inspirational person to work for,” enthuses Ellson, “I feel honoured for the freedom she affords me as an operator to workshop ideas and create with her and the director.”

Walker and Ellson returned to their motherland on their second project, Tracks (2013, dir. John Curran), the outback-set youth wanderlust chronicle of writer Robyn Davidson starring Mia Wasikowska.

“Tracks was hard, but it was beautiful,” remembers Ellson. “We had some pretty crazy weather and were schlepping ourselves and our gear around sand dunes, but that’s what made it so good in my view. Sometimes the smaller jobs with smaller budgets can be more rewarding than the massive ones!”

Walker and Ellson’s fourth film Hidden Figures (2016, dir. Theodore Melfi), the true story of three female African-American mathematicians and their vital contribution to the USA’s 1960’s space programme, left a lasting impression on him.

“That was an amazing project to be involved with,” describes Ellson humbly. “We made a conscious decision early-on in the film to shoot the ladies with the lens slightly higher than usual, looking down on them. As the story progressed and they became more empowered, we subtly lowered the camera.”

Ellson’s professional relationship with Walker has benefits that are felt both ways. “We have an unspoken dialogue,” Ellson illustrates, “Mandy is involved with everything, but often she will give me the creative freedom to figure-out certain aspects of the shot with the director, such as the blocking or how to move the camera. When you have that background with a DP you get to understand how they like to do things. Mandy is very supportive and open to my ideas.”

By the time Ellson took on Black Panther (2018, dir. Ryan Coogler, DP Rachel Morrison ASC), he was in-demand as an operator. He graduated to A-camera for Peterson on The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018, dir. Susanna Fogel) and teamed-up with Walker for their sixth feature together Mulan (2020, dir. Niki Caro), shot in New Zealand, which earned him a nomination for the 2021 SOC Camera Operator Of The Year Award.

DP Eric Steelberg ASC bought Ellson up to Canada for two weeks of prep before shooting began on Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021, dir. Jason Reitman), something Ellson says “doesn’t happen very often. When operators are bought in during prep, we can sometimes flag things beforehand that can save a

We live like vagabonds

lot of time on the day. It’s really valuable.”

Ellson visited Australia again with Walker to shoot Elvis (2022, dir. Baz Luhrmann), which earned him a second SOC Camera Operator Of The Year Award nomination.

“Elvis was definitely a career highlight for me,” says Ellson. “Baz loves to move the camera; it’s like being in an orchestra where he is the conductor, often conducting camera and actors during the take.”

From the lonely outback to the buzz of LA, from shooting the marvellous Spatuletail Hummingbird on the Emmy Award-winning documentary One Life (2011) to the purpose-built lake village sets and huge exterior blue screens of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022, dir. Ryan Coogler, DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw ASC), Ellson has been there and done that. But, there is no place like home.

“My wife and kids are just amazing,” Ellson beams, “they afford me to go out and do what I love. The most important thing I can do when I’m not working is be present with them.”