American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 71

Images courtesy of Steve Gainer, ASC, ASK and the AC archives. Photo of Gainer by Sam Urdank.

Opposite: Writerdirector-actor Orson
Welles points the way
from behind a Mitchell
BNC camera during
production of the
feature Citizen Kane.
This page, left: At some
point during its storied
history, the Mitchell
BNC No. 2 was given a
blue finish by the rental
house of Mark
Armistead. Below:
Cinematographer Steve
Gainer, ASC, ASK is the
curator of the ASC
Museum. He supervised
the restoration of the
Mitchell No. 2 after it
was generously
donated to the
Museum by James A.
Contner.

Steve Gainer, ASC, ASK
pursued his own
"Rosebud" to find and
restore the historic
Mitchell BNC camera
that Gregg Toland, ASC
had used on
Citizen Kane.
By David Alexander Willis
*|*

L

aying the foundation for a mystery
that would unfold over more than
two decades, Steve Gainer, ASC,
ASK began collecting antique
movie equipment in the early 1990s. In
the years since, he's come to serve as the
longtime curator of the ASC Museum,
and he's found, identified and restored
many a cinema camera from around the
world and throughout the history of
motion pictures. In that time, however,

one particular camera has always been
on his mind: the Mitchell BNC with
serial number 2, the camera that
legendary cinematographer Gregg
Toland, ASC had used to shoot Orson
Welles' Citizen Kane and other classic
films.
Gainer's association with the
ASC museum began in 1996, when he
found out that a trove of cameras, lenses
and other equipment was sitting
www.ascmag.com

unkempt in the ASC Clubhouse. He
jumped at the opportunity to assist the
Society, undertaking what he foresaw as
a six-month project to get the collection
in order.
"It was a tinge of Indiana Jones,
you know?" Gainer reflects with a laugh
while speaking to AC from New
Orleans, where he's in production on
the Netflix project The Last Laugh, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Chevy Chase
November 2017

71



http://www.ascmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - November 2017

Contents
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 1
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 2
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - Contents
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 4
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 5
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 6
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 7
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 8
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 9
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 10
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 11
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 12
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 13
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 14
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 15
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 16
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 17
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 18
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 19
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 20
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 21
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 22
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 23
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 24
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 25
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 26
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 27
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 28
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 29
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 30
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 31
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 32
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 33
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 34
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 35
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 36
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 37
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 38
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 39
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 40
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 41
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 42
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 43
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 44
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 45
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 46
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 47
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 48
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 48a
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 48b
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 49
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 50
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 51
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 52
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 53
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 54
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 55
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 56
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 57
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 58
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 59
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 60
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 61
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 62
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 63
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 64
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 65
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 66
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 67
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 68
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 69
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 70
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 71
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 72
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 73
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 74
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 75
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 76
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 77
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 78
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 79
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 80
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 81
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 82
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 83
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 84
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 85
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 86
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 87
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 88
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - November 2017 - Cover4
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