New Zealand Cinematographers Society

Since incorporating the society in January, the NZCS has been extremely busy, organizing events for both its members and the wider industry.

In April we had an open event hosted by Metro Film that introduced the Arri D21 camera to the local film industry, hard on the heels of its unveiling at the annual National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) symposium in the USA.

May was a full dance card, starting with a presentation by James Bartle (NZCS Committee member), who spoke to invited guests from the industry on digital imaging and color correction tricks and traps. This was followed by a “Red Event”, hosted by Rocket Rentals and presented by Mike Seymour, who spoke to a group of 50 industry guests on the Red camera workflow. Four days later, a small group of members gathered to see _Depart_ and _Serial Killer_, two short films by Baudouin and Bruno du Bois, recently shot in New Zealand on the new Sony F23 camera. This event was hosted by Sony and Digipost and was kindly organized by Louis-Philippe Capelle, who was the DOP on the projects.

Exactly one week after that, on Queen's Birthday Monday, we had a marathon screening of Apocalypto, followed by Q&A with Dean Semler ASC, ACS. Also there was John Galt of Panavision, who is credited with the development of the Genesis camera used on the film. Many thanks to Panavision for making this happen. After the relentless pace of the movie, most present were grateful for the refreshments laid on by Panavision, before going into a very interesting Question and Answer session, with supporting stills and excerpts from the production. We were extremely lucky to have Dean attend this, as he was only in this part of the world to attend the ACS 50th events and awards. It was good to hear that he was very happy with the quality of HD projection at the Albany SkyCity Cinema.

Going forward, we are looking at even more events. Some will present opportunities for us to interact with the wider film industry, and others will be available only to our members. To keep up with what is happening you can visit our website at www.nzcine.com. From there access to the forum and the activities calendar is one click away. You will also find a list of our current members, and details on the various forms of membership we offer.

Regards,

Kevin Riley

Chairperson, NZCS