Last summer, the national executive board of the International Cinematographers Guild (ICG), IATSE Local 600, elected commercial, television and feature DP Steven Poster, ASC as its new president. SHOOT:
He was elected to fill the remaining term of Gary Dunham’s presidency, following Dunham’s removal from office; Poster’s term runs through May ’07.
Poster has been a member of IATSE since 1969. He has been a VP of the ICG and a member of the executive board of the International Documentary Association. He served as president of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) from ’02-’03, and currently serves as a vice chair of the ASC Technology Committee.
Poster was born and raised in Chicago. He studied photography at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., and subsequently earned his degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Following graduation, a commercial film production company in Chicago hired him as an assistant cameraman, and he was soon promoted to cameraman. He shot industrial and educational films, TV commercials and documentaries during that formative period.
Poster then began shooting second unit for Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC, on several films (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The River) and for Jordan Cronenweth, ASC (Blade Runner).
Poster moved to California in the mid-’70s and primarily shot television commercials. In ’79 he landed his first feature film, a horror movie called Blood Beach.
He continues to shoot commercials on a regular basis. As well, his recent work includes: Mrs. Harris, starring Annette Bening and Ben Kingsley, for which Poster was nominated for an Emmy last year in the cinematography category; and director Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales, which was in competition last year at Cannes.
Poster: My first and primary goal with the ICG was to bring us back together as a family, as brothers and sisters, and as a union.
It’s no secret that there has been some turmoil over the last few years. … The support that we’ve been given by members across the country has been tremendous. My goal has been to do things for the members and we have already accomplished quite a bit. We had our first nationwide craft meeting with the camera operators–a videoconference from L.A. to all our regional offices. It was a two-and-a-half-hour meeting to discuss those issues that affect the camera operator directly. People who participated thought it was a great success. We will continue with this to have an assistants meeting, cinematographers meeting and meetings for all the other crafts that we represent.
We also had a mega digital weekend training session where we brought more than 80 members to Atlanta from as far away as Minnesota, South Carolina, Texas, Florida and Louisiana to train on the [Arri] D-20, [Dalsa] Origin, [Grass Valley] Viper, [Panavision] Genesis, and the [Sony] F900. It was a weekend where significant training took place; as well members had a chance to meet each other for the first time from across the central and southeastern regions of the country. We will extend this event at least two more times this year; one for the Northeast and one for the Southwest. Many other plans for training and get togethers are in the works. As an organization, we must give back to our members. This goal has been lost in the last few years.
The second goal of my presidency has been to repair our relationship with the other locals within the IATSE and raise our status in the community. Based on the response we’ve gotten, this has also been successful.
This is through meetings, social events and through visiting many sets across the country.
I plan to run for another term as president this spring to continue the work that I’ve begun.
Poster: One of the most important issues that we need to deal with for our members is new and hybrid technologies and new visual delivery systems. The technology world is changing at breakneck speeds. As a union we have to identify what work will be available for our members in the immediate and in the distant future. When a producer says we need somebody to do X, Y or Z, we want our members trained and ready to accomplish those tasks.
[Another issue is that] in the past few years there has been a small but vocal group trying to convince labor and government organizations to fund what is known as a 301A Trade Action against Canadian subsidies to try and stem runaway production. Our board of directors recognized that this was not the best way to deal with the runaway problem. We had voted it down before, but it kept coming back. So I called a meeting [in November] to have both sides represented by experts, which had never happened before. Michael Punke, formerly advisor to the U.S. trade representative; and Alan M. Dunne, a trade attorney who wished to represent us if we agreed to spend the money to file this action, had a lively debate for more than hour. Both positions were fairly represented. And the end result was that our board decided once again to not support these trade sanctions. We believe that runaway production of any kind is always a serious problem.
We are working with other organizations to find positive ways to bring work back to America.
Poster: Once again, we see a changing landscape in the world of commercial photography. I’ve seen some of the best cinematography ever done in commercials recently.
As well, I’ve seen some of the least exciting presentations of images. There is a great disparity between the high end and the low end. And oddly enough, this does not reflect necessarily on the budgets of the commercials.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult for cinematographers over the years to become involved in the postproduction of their commercial work. One of the exciting developments that’s just around the corner has to do with color and image management directed all the way through the process from image creation to final delivery.
This will allow us as cinematographers to have our original content seen and understood by agencies and clients even if we are not available in person.
This will be a great leap forward in the art and craft of commercial cinematography. We are nearing the goal that I’ve been talking about of end-to-end device independent color management.
This will be an important development across the entire visual landscape, whether you are shooting commercials, television or feature films.
Poster: The recent work that we hope to see on the screen this spring is director Richard Kelly’s (Donnie Darko) second movie called Southland Tales.
This film is a unique and exciting movie that I think will be as important Donnie Darko was.
I’ve also over the last year moved back to some of my favorite work in commercials and promos.
I grew up doing this work. And I’m happy to be back at it.
