American Cinematographer - November 2015 - 84

Filmmakers' Forum

Reaching Tomorrow's Filmmakers Today
By Debra Kaufman

"The ASC's mission, almost from the very beginning of the
organization, has been education," says Society President Richard
Crudo. "And not just [educating] students or young people, but the
industry as well." The ASC's educational initiatives take many shapes,
including the Master Classes and Breakfast Club conversations, but
the Society also places particular importance on reaching out to
young people in or just out of college who plan to pursue a career
in the motion-picture business. To that end, the ASC's Education and
Public Outreach Committee invites groups of students every month
to visit the Clubhouse and absorb real-world lessons from panels of
ASC cinematographers.
George Spiro Dibie, ASC has chaired the Education and Public
Outreach Committee since former ASC President Daryn Okada
appointed him to the role. "George jumped on the opportunity, and
he shepherds the program," says Crudo. "He took it to the next
level, driving it almost single-handedly, just as Kees van Oostrum,
ASC has shaped the Master Classes."
Reaching out to students is particularly important at a time
when cinematography's tools have become democratized, but the
practical and artistic requirements of the job are often minimized or
ignored. "There's a lot of misinformation out there about cinematography," notes Crudo. "We want to give [the students] an idea of
what the real world of cinematography is, which is different from the
academic environment, and I think we do that really well."
The Committee's student-focused activities include "Cine84

November 2015

matographer Show & Tell," during which ASC members show clips
of their work and explain how they lit and shot the scenes, and
"Dialogue With ASC Cinematographers," an open forum in which
the conversation is driven by whatever questions the attendees ask.
Schools that have participated include George Washington University; University of California, Los Angeles; California State University,
Northridge; Tulane University; College of Southern Nevada; Loyola
Marymount University; Rochester Institute of Technology; Montana
State University; and Compass College of Cinematic Arts. With
anywhere from 20 to 60 students attending each event, Dibie estimates that the Committee's activities have so far impacted "close to
1,000 students," he says, and not all of them have been aspiring
cinematographers. "Some of them want to be directors, editors,
writers or producers," Dibie notes. "But, for all of them, the more
you know about cinematography, the easier your job will be."
In addition to hosting these events at the ASC Clubhouse -
or, as Dibie refers to it, "the shrine" - the Committee has also
presented similar sessions at CSUN, J.L. Fisher and Cine Gear Expo.
Whatever the venue, Dibie assembles each session by recruiting
fellow ASC members to sit on the panels, and schools to send their
students. He requests that faculty provide their students with the
names of the panelists ahead of time so they can come prepared
with specific questions tailored to those cinematographers' experiences. According to Dibie, 54 ASC cinematographers have so far
participated.
The conversations frequently focus on lighting, composition
and camera movement. "We talk about how to light for different
genres and different stories, and how to achieve different looks,"

American Cinematographer

Photos by Alex Lopez.

From left: ASC members Bill Bennett, David Perkal, Anna Foerster, George Spiro Dibie, Haskell Wexler, Victor J. Kemper, M. David Mullen and James
L. Carter speak with visiting students during an event presented by the Education and Public Outreach Committee at the Clubhouse in Hollywood.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - November 2015