American Cinematographer - March 2017 - 86

Above left: Students and Society members
participate in the inaugural ASC
International Master Class. Above right,
from left: ASC members Frederick Elmes,
Guillermo Navarro, Sam Nicholson, Bill
Bennett, Rene Ohashi and Bert Dunk.
Left: Patty Mack.

Society Holds Inaugural
International Master Class
The Society recently held the first
ASC International Master Class in Toronto,
Canada. Presented in partnership with Arri,
and structured similarly to the Master
Classes offered in Los Angeles, the weekend
kicked off with a Friday night meet-andgreet dinner at rental and service shop Sim
Digital. On Saturday, the venue shifted to
Sheridan College's Screen Industries
Research and Training Centre (SIRT), which is
located at Pinewood Toronto Studios and
offers a soundstage for cutting-edge experimentation, and Sunday included a DI coloring session held at the Sim Group post shop
Pixel Underground. The 30 students who
were enrolled in the sold-out event participated in demonstrations and hands-on
workshops led by ASC members Frederick
Elmes, Guillermo Navarro, Sam Nicholson and Bill Bennett. Additionally, Rene
Ohashi, ASC, CSC and Bert Dunk ASC,
86

March 2017

CSC lent their assistance as ASC Ambassadors throughout the weekend.
"I've done a lot of work in Toronto
over the years," says ASC President Kees
van Oostrum. "I felt very confident about
the people there, such as [ASC associate and
Sim Group founder and vice chair] Rob Sim,
and saw it as a safe haven for us to stage the
first [International Master Class]. I think it
worked out great. The facility there is sensational, and that all helps to give the
program a cachet we like it to have in terms
of quality."
Van Oostrum added, "I like to keep
the quality of the Master Classes as high as
we've been having it, which means occupying them with [instructors] from the A-list
who are currently doing movies and TV. That
sets us apart from other educational
courses, however many there are that might
be of great quality. Nobody else can offer
the talent we can."
To learn more about the ASC Master
Class program, visit www.theasc.com/site/
asc-master-class/.
In Memoriam: Patty Mack
Agent Patricia "Patty" Mack, who
represented cinematographers and other
American Cinematographer

motion-picture craftspeople, died on Jan. 9.
Born and raised in Burlington, Vt.,
Mack left home at an early age, became an
anti-war activist, and conducted fundraising
and public relations for the venerable Philo
Records, which recorded and preserved folk
and traditional American music. In the mid1980s, she joined International Producers
Services in Los Angeles and worked her way
up from production assistant to producer.
As an executive producer at the Partners
Film Co., she worked with pioneers in the
burgeoning visual-effects industry.
After landing at Dove Films, Mack
worked with late ASC members Haskell
Wexler, Vilmos Zsigmond and Sven Nykvist.
She also had a close association with Crayton Smith, who headed the first talent
agency devoted to representing cinematographers. In 1991, Mack joined Smith,
Gosnell, Nicholson and Associates, where
she represented the agency's deep pool of
cinematographers.
In 1996, she founded the Mack
Agency. Maintaining an established roster
of veteran craftspeople, Mack was also
instrumental in fostering the development
of young talent.
Mack was a member of the founding committee and steering committee for
5D: The Future of Immersive Design; she
was also a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the Association
of Independent Commercial Producers.
●

Photo of Clubhouse by Isidore Mankofsky, ASC; lighting by Donald M. Morgan, ASC.
Master Class photos by Alex Lopez, Zefred, Alex Beatty, Jose Santos and Suzhe Li. Patty Mack photo courtesy of Murtha Skouras Agency.

Clubhouse News

http://www.theasc.com/site/asc-master-class/ http://www.theasc.com/site/asc-master-class/

American Cinematographer - March 2017

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