According to the widely travelled cinematographer Pieter de Vries ACS, the worst thing you can do on arrival at Darwin Airport is to make any reference to the heat – it’s an immediate sign of weakness, a sign that you’re “not from ‘round these parts”. If you can resist the temptation there’s a chance you’ll fit right in.
And fit right in he did!
The Film and Television Association of the NT in partnership with the ACS Northern Territory branch hosted its first ever master class in Darwin on September 26 with Pieter de Vries ACS offering a lifetime of experience to an enthusiastic group.
The audience consisted of some experienced freelancer operators, news cameramen from the ABC and Channel 9, and a number of emerging camera operators and filmmakers. Against this backdrop of mixed experience, Pieter brilliantly tailored the day, so that all participants were able to walk away with a sense that they’d been empowered with a new idea for a camera angle, a sequence or the placement of a light.
Steering clear of heavy duty tech talk, Pieter’s emphasis was on using the image for creative storytelling. He spent a valuable part of the session dissecting some of his sequences from various projects, explaining how he likes to build up to the establishing shot via a sequence of tight frames.
Pieter covered considerable ground during the daylong session including the pros & cons of DSLR, exposure and shutter use, colour temperature and interview lighting techniques. Throughout it all he remained highly approachable, very relaxed, incredibly knowledgeable and rather humorous – not to mention quite inspiring.
And there’s already discussion of a return for a lighting class in 2012. Thanks to Pieter for a fabulous day, and to Jennifer & Ian Richards, Ian Redfearn and Katie Cummins for helping to bring the day together.
(The Pieter de Vries ACS Master class was an initiative of the ACS NT Branch as part of the Film & Television Association of the NT 2011/12 Workshop Series funded by the NT Film Office).
