The process of emerging is evolving. Indeed there are different states of–and stages in–emergence, including how talent progresses, gains exposure and then earns meaningful recognition. This week we explore different points on that career continuum relative to promising cinematographers.
First, SHOOT talks to André Chemetoff who is about to make his mark in the U.S., having recently secured his first stateside representation, signing with William Morris Endeavor (WME) Entertainment. Initially establishing himself in music videos and commercials primarily out of production companies in France, Chemetoff has since seen his first two theatrical feature films in Europe gain momentum on the festival circuit–one at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival back in April, the other at the Toronto International Film Festival which wrapped last week.
While Chemetoff appears on the road to having his major film festival splash spawn a ripple effect in the American marketplace, other aspiring DPs have made significant strides of another variety as honorees in the 14th annual International Cinematographers Guild (ICG) Emerging Cinematographers Awards, which take place this weekend (9/26) at the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Theater in Los Angeles.
Steven Poster, ASC, national president of ICG Local 600, said the Guild “is the only union in the movie business that honors its newest talent. These are the cinematographers who will be shooting your commercials tomorrow.”
SHOOT explores the backstories of Chemetoff as well as a trio from the 2010 ICG Emerging Cinematographers Awards’ field of up-and-comers.
André Chemetoff André Chemetoff has a family lineage in filmmaking. His mother is an editor; his uncle is noted cinematographer Darius Khondji.
“I grew up watching my mom work,” recalled Chemetoff. “I was always around the creative process and have been passionate about photography since I was a child.”
This passion translated into Chemetoff getting his first 35mm camera at the age of 11. When he was 15, Chemetoff asked his uncle if he could serve as a trainee on the set of a project. Khondji advised his nephew to first finish school, learn as much as possible, and then they could revisit a possible trainee gig.
At the age of 18, Chemetoff asked again and got the opportunity, becoming a trainee on The Ninth Gate directed by Roman Polanski and shot by Khondji.
Later came trainee duty on The Beach directed by Danny Boyle and shot by Khondji.
This was followed by three months working at –clair Lab in France with noted colorist Yvan Lucas. “It was a great education seeing the inner workings of the lab,” said Chemetoff, “and being able to observe Yvan going about his craft.”
Chemetoff then moved up the ranks, serving in such capacities as second assistant cameraman, focus puller and eventually landing some work as a DP on smaller projects.
A key connection was a reconnection with a childhood friend, Romain Gavras. The two hadn’t seen each other for years, though, until running into one another at a concert. A week later they were collaborating on a music video–directed by Gavras and shot by Chemetoff.
Their filmography together now encompasses commercials including work for Disney, such clips as Simian Mobile Disco’s “I Believe,’ DJ Medhi/T. Bangalter’s “Signature,” and Justice’s “Stress,” as well as Chemetoff’s first work for an American client, M.I.A.’s “Born Free” video produced jointly by El Nino (the music video division of Soixante-Quinze which is Gavras’ commercial production company affiliation in France), and The Directors Bureau (which serves as Gavras’ commercialmaking roost in the United States).
Gavras recommended Chemetoff to another friend, director Kim Chapiron (of production house Partizan) who in turn chose the DP to lens Dog Pound, a youth correctional facility drama. It was Chemetoff’s first feature, an experience he described as “an intense four months of shooting in Canada for a story that was both highly emotional and violent.”
Dog Pound went on to earn helmer Chapiron best new narrative filmmaker distinction at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. Jurors at the Tribeca Festival offered a collective assessment of the feature film, which in part read, “We have chosen to honor a director who created an environment built with such intensity and humanity that his ensemble cast was able to transcend the cold walls and locked doors that confined their characters.”
Chemetoff later embarked on his second feature, the Gavras-directed Notre Jour Viendra (Our Day Will Come) which made its world premiere during the just concluded Toronto Film Festival.
Chemetoff said he’s found his experience in multiple disciplines to be creatively gratifying. “Music videos provide a great way to try new things and experiment. You have to be creative with no money.
“Commercials,’ he continued, “offer more of a budget so you can do much more within a structured environment. You don’t have as much creative space as you do in videos but there are opportunities still to do great work within a concentrated time span of two or three days.”
Among Chemetoff’s commercial credits are several Volkswagen campaigns directed by Matthieu Mantovani of Les Films Traffik, MTV which was helmed by Ben Dickinson of Les Telecreateurs, Nike directed by NAN of Soixante-Quinze, and E.Leclerc helmed by Keith Bearden who earned inclusion in the 2008 SHOOT New Directors Showcase.
As for his feature film endeavors, Chemetoff related, “The storytelling opportunity is so great. The relationships with the actors and the director can go so deep over an extended period of time. The director is really like your brother. You have to be able to understand the director’s true feelings, sometimes expressed in a little phrase or a look. I feel very fortunate to have done two features with directors who I feel are kindred spirits with me. Plus, with the extended schedule of a feature, you have more time to prepare, more time to go on location and hang around, to be inspired by your surroundings.”
Chemetoff shot both of the features on 35mm and is very much a lover of the film medium.
At the same time, he has enjoyed his experiences shooting with digital cameras such as Arri’s D21 and Sony’s F35. And he is very much looking forward to getting the chance to work on the new Arri ALEXA, which pairs digital technology with more filmic features and sensibilities.
The DP is also looking forward to substantively breaking into the U.S. market for spots, branded content, videos and longer form fare. He signed with WME just a couple of months ago.
John Snedden
John Snedden received his ICG Emerging Cinematographers Award on the strength of Brite Eyes, a short he lensed for director Andrew Eckblad. The 12-minute film is based on a script that Eckblad wrote years ago in high school.
The short depicts a dark chaotic black-and-white world drained of all its color until a woman takes a path that leads to a kneeling girl who has color in her eyes. People are afraid to approach the girl but the woman does with unexpected results.
Snedden said he was drawn to the film’s visual boldness and its message relative to people who are driven by fear, anger and frustration. “It’s kind of a canvas of what America is going through,” he observed.
Snedden knows a bit about service to his country, having been a camera operator for the United States Navy.
“In the Navy I learned how to make anything interesting if you look at it the right way, a different way, and pay attention,” he said. “You can shoot personnel typing up orders and somehow make that look and feel interesting. The Navy gave me my core training behind the camera.”
The footage he captured went beyond the alluded to mundane to encompass international shoots in places like the Middle East, Haiti, and near Barrow Point, Alaska. Some of the images he got at the latter locale–on an expedition to study global warming–found their way into the Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth.
“I got experience in a documentary-style type of filmmaking in the Navy. It was invaluable to me as a cinematographer,” said Snedden.
After retiring from the Navy in 2004, Snedden landed work as a loader on a TV show and worked his way up to union camera operator.
He later took a job as a DP at an HD network (WealthTV), and then wrapped his first feature as a cinematographer, The Ant Farm, directed by Aaron Mento.
At press time, Snedden was preparing to go to the Philippines for a tech scout on a movie called Zombie Puppets directed by Dean Bull and written by Mento.
Plans call for the first 10 minutes of the feature to be shot on film, with other segments deploying RED and Iconix. Also being considered for some scenes is GoPro, a tiny palm camera which Snedden had used successfully for portions of The Ant Farm.
As for what the ICG Emerging Cinematographers Award means to him, Snedden observed, “It’s wonderful recognition. To hear a great artist like Steven Poster contact me with the news meant a lot to me. He has shot some wonderful movies and projects, and I hope to make a career out of doing the same.”
Stephanie Dufford The Fantastic Magnifico earned Stephanie Dufford her ICG Emerging Cinematographers Award. Directed and written by Sam Sharpe (a classmate at the Rhode Island School of Design), the 11-minute short–which served as Dufford’s thesis project at Columbia College, Chicago–centers on a man who reflects back on his World War I experience and fancies himself a hero. He’s more of an anti-hero, though, and his story is one of mistakenly identifying the enemy during combat, and then later in life seeking what turns out to be a most twisted revenge for a lost limb.
Dufford said of the ICG recognition, “I’m extremely honored and excited. I have shot a lot since Magnifico and feel that I’m constantly learning and growing. I hope this award means I’m growing in the right direction.”
The fact is that Dufford didn’t always know her career direction. She grew up in the fine arts, her father being a musician. But she was more drawn to the visual arts, and started painting and drawing.
This eventually led to her studying at the Rhode Island School of Design. “It’s a school oriented around personal expression, and growth happened there for me as it did many others.”
Dufford continued to enjoy painting and drawing but not the prospect of being alone in a studio trying to make a living.
She thus turned to another long-time interest, photography, took some film classes and shot different projects on a Bolex.
“Now upon reflection, my favorite part of painting was lighting the subject and mixing the different values between shadow and light,” she observed. “What I loved has translated into photography. I see that clearly now but didn’t at that time.”
While at Rhode Island School of Design, Dufford began looking for a hands-on, production-oriented school, and wound up transferring to Columbia College, pursuing cinematography right off the bat. “I found it fun, challenging from a technical aspect, and most of all fulfilling.”
Dufford caught a break when she landed an internship on Stranger Than Fiction when it came to Chicago. Along the way she met several camera assistants and made inroads professionally.
She is currently a second assistant cameraperson, having joined the ICG right after wrapping her studies at Columbia College.
Dufford later attended the American Film Institute for a semester but opted to pursue more hands-on, in-the-field experience.
Some of this experience has come from shadowing noted cinematographer Seamus McGarvey over the past nine or so months, observing his work on commercials as well as on a Lynne Ramsay-directed feature film titled We Need To Talk About Kevin, which he shot in Connecticut.
“Watching him work has been a great education,” related Dufford.
Tod Campbell The short Big Bends, directed by Jason Marlow, garnered Tod Campbell his ICG Emerging Cinematographers Award. The 13-minute film relates the story of a man who is diagnosed with a terminal lung disease and goes to Big Bend National Park in west Texas to live out his last days. He encounters a Mexican couple crossing the border and lends them a hand, leaving it up to interpretation if his helping was a noble gesture or instead done simply to get the pair out of his way so he could die in peace.
Campbell shot the short on Kodak’s Vision 3 16mm film.
“Film was the perfect medium to capture the contrast, the shadows and the highlights of those Big Bend locations,” assessed Campbell who welcomed the chance to again shoot film in that he had become somewhat of a digital go-to guy in Texas, serving as DP on spec work and real-world projects for ad agencies on digital cameras spanning Panasonic and Sony models as well as RED.
Among his latest DP efforts are a dozen web videos for Texas Tourism–co-directed by Justin Corsbie and (producer) Nicole Henrich of Synthetic Pictures for TM Advertising, Dallas–that entailed shooting on the Canon 7D and 5D cameras.
Campbell continues to work as an operator on features and television. For the latter discipline, he is operating the Sony F35 on the primetime hourlong ABC-TV drama My Generation, working with noted cinematographer Anthony Wolberg.
Campbell said of Wolberg, “Tony is maybe the most talented guy I’ve worked with. The experience has been a great education. It’s what I like most about operating–for commercials, I’ve worked with a number of different DPs and learned so much from them over the years. Same for features and TV.”
Campbell started out as a production assistant on short and long-form projects, working on commercials in Texas and New York.
One of his early p.a. jobs was on the feature film The Chase starring Charlie Sheen. Campbell originally aspired to be a commercial director, an ambition which had him helming varied spec spots. Around 2001, Campbell got into the camera department and found his calling.
“I had shot loads of spec commercials for years and years.,” Campbell related. “Once I got into the camera department, I moved pretty quickly into operating and began focusing intently on cinematography.”
That focus has been rewarded, most recently with the ICG honor. “To have the judges vote for my work means a great deal,” said Campbell. “To get that kind of recognition from your peers is tremendous–and I use the word ‘peers’ loosely because these judges are so much more accomplished than I am. It’s a great honor.”
Emerging Field The other 2010 ICG Emerging Cinematographers Awards’ recipients were: second assistant Cameron Duncan, from Venice, Calif., for shooting the 20-minute Mr Marceau; Santa Monica-based Patrick Jones whose Android Love came in at 18 minutes; Rodney Lamborn, an operator living in New York, with the shortest film in the group, the little over two-and-a-half-minute Meridian; operator Samuel Pinger from Pasadena, Calif., who was honored for shooting the 15-minute The Cycle; and Los Angeles-based first assistant, Brian Udoff, whose 26-minute Les Mouches is the longest film in the batch.
In addition, there are a couple of ICG Emerging Cinematographers Awards honorable mentions–operators Tim Bellen, from Santa Rosa, Calif., and Aaron Medick, living in Astoria, New York, whose short films are respectively titled State of Grace and Weequahic.
